
Class 



" k 



PRESENT!-:!) BY 




HON. A. BUCK. 



FEAUDS AND FALSEHOODS 



OF THE 



T 



REPUBLICM PARTI 



A COMPLETE HISTOEY OF THE POLICY AND WORKS OF THAT PAETY FEOM ITS 
ORIGIX TO THE PEESEXT DAY, SHOWING ITS EECKLESS FINANCIAL MISMAN- 
AGEMENT, THE FALLACY OF ITS THEOEY OF PEOTECTION, THE TEUE 
NATHEE AND PUEPOSE OP THAT ACT OF LEGISLATIVE MONSTEOSITY 
KNOWN AS THE * ' FOECE BILL, " THE INJUSTICE OF THE NATION- 
AL BANKING SYSTEM AND ITS FALSE POSITION TOWARD 
THE SILVEE QUESTION, AND CONTAINING THE FAMOUS 
TAEIFF EEFOEM MESSAGE OF GEOVEE CLEVELAND 



BY 

THE HOK A. BUCK 



ILLUSTRATED. 






COPYRIGHT, 

IT. J. SMITH & CO., 
1892. 



^4'' 



^1 



"nu,, 






PREFACE. 



This volume is intended for farmers, mechanics, laborers 
and all citizens who have at heart the welfare of the coun- 
try. The object has been to produce as many arguments, 
backed by facts and figures, as can be contained in a volume 
of this size. The tariff, and other questions of the greatest 
importance, have been discussed, and the merits of the 
Eepublican and Democratic parties compared. It is the 
opinion of the author that the time has now arrived when 
the people of this great nation should carefully investigate 
the political situation, that they may be certain whether the 
ship of state has not been drifting, or is liable to drift, away 
from the old landmarks that were designated by the found- 
ers of the republic. The plan pursued in this volume has, 
therefore, been to give a brief history of the political man- 
agement of the country during the past twenty-five years, 
in regard to the most important questions acted upon. Its 
title plainly shows that it is anti-Republican. Republicans 
should not, for that reason, refuse to read it ; for it would 
require years to enable the average voter to obtain such a 
knowledge of facts and figures as are here to be found. 
No person should refuse to read a book for the reason that 
it gLoes not conform to his or her particular notions of things. 
The man who would become posted in regard to the politics 
of the nation should carefully investigate the principles 
and policies of all parties; for there can be little hope 
for a man who will only read one side, and there can be nc 
hope for a political organization which is controlled by such 
men. 



vi PBEFACE. 

The first chapter is confined principally to Cleveland's 
administration and the tariif question. 

The second and third chapters treat of Harrison's admin- 
istration, the tariff, ship subsidies, reciprocity treaties, etc. 
The fourth chapter treats of the financial mismanagement 
of the nation, aside from the tariff question, during the past 
twenty-five years. 

The fifth chapter is confined to the silver question. 

The reader will also find at the close of the last chapter 
the great speech of Henry M. Teller, of Colorado, made in 
the United States Senate upon the silver question. May 14th 
and 15th, 1890. This speech is inserted, not only for the 
valuable information it contains upon the silver question, 
but on account of the great amount of information it con- 
tains concerning other matters of interest to the people. 
He claims that the general state of depression, and the 
downward tendency of prices in this country during the 
past twenty-five years, is due entirely to the lack of a sufficient 
volume of money in circulation ; while we claim that it is 
.due, not only to a lack of a sufficient circulating money 
medium, but to our unfair, inequitable and unjust tariff 
laws, which destroy the natural channels of trade and |)re- 
vent us from finding proper markets for our surplus 
productions. 

We think that Mr. Teller could not retain his seat in the 
Senate from Colorado were it not for his advocacy of prin- 
ciples so Democratic in their character as are contained in 
this speech. 

At the close the reader will find the great tariff message 
of Grover Cleveland to the Congress of the United States, 
December 7, 1887. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 
Cleveland's Administration, The Tariff, and Other Questions. 

PA 

Republican party not entitled to credit for building subsidized railroads — 
Colored people^ not returned to slavery under Democratic rule — 
Cleveland recommended that colored people be reimbursed for loss 
through that rotten Freedman's Savings Bank — Republican naval 
operations for twenty-two years — Republican reconstruction was de- 
struction — Cleveland the best friend soldiers ever had — Republicans 
never appoint Democratic soldiers to office — Cleveland signed more 
private pension bills than any other president — His vetoes of private 
pension bills proper — A flood of fraudulent pension bills — Adjutant 
General Drum's attempt to return the Confederate flags frustrated 
by Cleveland — The appointment of rebel brigadiers by Cleveland 
proper — Grant could appoint the guemllas Avithout censure — The 
great sin of being a Democrat — Republican party devoid of all prin- 
ciple on the taiiff question — History of th^e tariff — Past views ex- 
pressed on the tariff" by Blaine, Sherman, Garfield, Arthur, Allison, 
Logan and others, showing them worse free-traders than they claim 
Democrats now are — In 1883 a Republican commission recommeded 
a 15 per cent, greater reduction than proposed by the Mills bill — Re- 
publican tariff platform of 1884 — Cry of free-trade — Proposition to 
remove revenue tax from whisky and tobacco — "What sort of a reform 
is this — The Chinese question and Republican and Ben Harrison's record 
in relation thereto — Falsity of Englishmen rejoicing over prospects of 
passage of the Mills bill — The tariff" an English and Chinese system, not 
American — It originated in piracy — China always maintained the 
highest tariff, and England, for centuries — The result poverty and 
misery — Quotation from [^Mrs. Martineau's histoiy, showing result of 
high tariff in England — This modem Republican party the British 
party — Is a descendant of the old Federal party which would have pat- 
terned our government after that of old England — In what manner 
they would have done so — Wanted a president for life, and a bank pat- 
terned after the Bank of England, which should control the currency — 
Now Republican party apes English ways by destroying silver as 
m.oney, and insists upon gold and national bank notes as the only 
money, as it is in England — Tariff tax resorted to by despots — High 



tfiii ■ CONTENTS. 

pAdfi. 
tariff, I'oyai gift and subsidies created an English aristocracy and myri- 
ads of paupers — Grants and subsidies to the wealthy in this country 
during twenty-four years greater than during a century in England, 
prior to 1846 — Irish voter deceived by Republican — England ruined 
Ireland by a high tariff — That England has free- trade is false — Eng- 
land collects more tariff tax per capita than we do — Democratic party 
is, and always has been, the anti-British party — Jefferson its founder — 
"We owe true American government to Jefferson, Madison, Monroe and 
Jackson ■— Our honor revindicated in the war of 1812, but New Eng- 
land proved traitor — In 1846, England changed her tariff laws by 
removing tariff from raw materials — We successfully competed with 
England in the trade of the world while we had a low tariff — What 
Blaine says about it in his book — Since adoption of our high tariff 
England monopolizes trade of the worlds- Our trade in meantime in 
manufactm'cd commodities has vanished — Strikes, riots, and labor 
troubles brought about — Trade with Mexico, "West India Islands and 
South American States is surrendered to England and other nations — ■ 
Englishmen buy and build ships where they please, but Americans pre- 
vented from building ships by high tariff, and prevented from buying 
them elsewhere — Tariff' does not insure high wages — Instances showing 
this tariff not the cause of higher wages here than in England — This illus- 
trated — What Adam Smith said in 1778 — Where the tariff the highest, 
wages generally the lowest — Illustration — High tariff never resulted 
in better wages — Millmen will employ the cheapest labor — The tariff is 
a tax — Illustration — More than three-fourths of it goes into the pock- 
ets of the mill-barons — Illustration — Nine-tenths of the tariff tax paid 
by the poorer class of people — Illustration — A tariff" tax not equal for it 
is levied on the amount consumed instead of on the proportionate 
wealth of each citizen — Poor man pays more than millionaire — Illus- 
tration — More than $20,000,000,000 of tariff tax paid by our people dur- 
ing past twenty-five years — Eapacious capitalists received this without 
price — Amount of mortgages in seven states exceeds $3,000,000,000, 
the full extent of the high tariff swindle — Tariff tax could not be col- 
lected if not an indirect tax — Kansas crops and mortgages — Causes 
of the straightened circumstances in that state — Articles upon which 
tariff" tax the highest — Bm-den of tariff tax rests the heaviest upon 
our industrial classes — Illustrations — Eesult of thirty years of high 
tariff — Creates monopolies-^ It destroys commercial intercourse with 
nations — Does not protect agaist paupers — They hire pauper labor 
and charge the consumer what they please — People working in New 
England and Pennsylvania at starvation wages — Wages lower m pro- 
tected districts than elsewhere— Tables and illustrations — No danger 
ot flood of foreign goods under reasonable tariff — Illustrations — 
More tariff history — We exported iron and other commodities to Eng- 
land before we had any tariff — Whig party violated pledge to compro- 
mise tariff of 1832 — Our golden period — Our commerce between 1846 



CONTENTS. ix 

PAGE. 

and 1860 — Now gone — Mills bill — Cheap goods needed — Cheap mate- 
rials "wiii help our factories and consumer^ alike — Illustration — The 
swindle known as the ' ' drawback " — It favors foreigners at the expense 
of our own consumers — It is said tariff only intended to protect infant 
industries — Thoj willnerer stand alone — Wool and the sheep kings — 
Our manufacturers make shoddj — Cheap materials cannot cheapen 
labor — K"o free-trade in Cleveland's message — John Sherman's at- 
tempt to annihilate the message — Paying a premium to call and 
pay bonds a fraud — Unfairness of Republican reasoning — Senator 
Fry's school-boy talk — Republican financial policy — Elected Ben Har- 
rison — What had he done — "Who pushed him to the ft'ont — Treach- 
er killed Whig party, and may the Republican party 15 

CHAPTER II. - 

HaHEISON'S ADMDflSTEATIOX, ThE TaEIFF, ReCIPEOCITY TeEATIES, ShIP 

Subsidies axd Othee Questions. 

Shylock prevented Democratic relief — During Harrison's administration 
surplus squandered — Taxation increased — Surplus wasted does not 
relieve taxpayers — Money must be earned over again — Republican 
doctrine, anything to get money out of the treasury — In 1888 Demo- 
cratic candidate received majority of votes — Did not vote for increased 
taxes — Ingalls supported McKinley bill because Republican measure — 
When people subjected to oligarchy not much liberty — English people 
prospered better after they obtained some of their natural liberties — 
Democratic party that of progress and of American ideas — Illustrations 
— Republicans going backto the doctrines of.Hamilton — What Hamil- 
ton wanted — Opposing ideas of Jefferson and Hamilton — In 1800 
Jefferson triumphed over Hamilton and liberty overpower — Battles 
between Federalism and Jeffersonism being fought over again — Re- 
publicans bearing cloak of patriotism excite national hatred to accom- 
plish their ends — The McKinley bill — What it does — Will retard our 
progress and absorb the capital of the masses — The enormous swindle 
in the drawback scheme by the McKinley bill — Helps people in for- 
eign lands at expense of our tariff taxpayers — X tariff tax could not 
exist if made universal — Certain classes of industries must combine 
to fleece others and be backed by strong arm of government — Did not 
concern themselves about the prices of articles — True — Tax increase 
upon every necessary article — Tin plate — Pig tin not produced in this 
country in paying quantities — Opposite assertions are false — Object 
to compel people to abandon tin for more worthless and more expens- 
ive article — The poor consume tin — Tax doubled on tin for benefit of 
a few millionaires— $20,000,000 to be paid annually by people as tax 
on tin — Illustrations showing extent of this fraud — Tax on lamp 
chimneys — Table showing increase of tax by McKinley bill — Has not 



X ' CONTENTS. 

PAGfi. 

increased the wages of laborers — Labor must surrender a part of wages 
to pay increased tariff tax — Disposes of bis labor in a free market 
while mill-owner has price of his commodities increased bj law — ■ 
Most laborers do not work in mines nor mills, but need protection 
against high tariff — Bitterness between labor and capital — Strikes and 
lock-outs increase — "We have had every kind of tariff — Our factory 
workers paid not much better than in Europe — Testimony of wit- 
nesses to this — The farmers — Republican mock protection to them — 
Farming interests depressed — Farmer been voting for high taxes on 
what he must purchase — Reason of depression of farming industries 

— Their market shut off — Profits of farmers' investments compared 
with those of manufacturers — The effects of the war tariff and the 
tariff" of 1846 upon the wealth of farmers compared — The comparative 
wealth per capita — Exchange with Canada — Cheap raw material would 
benefit both consumer and manufacturer — Both parties really pro- 
tection parties — Only differ as to manner and mode — False representa- 
tions of Representative Payne, of New York, as to effects of free- 
trade between 1784 and 1790 — Republicans blow hot and then cold — 
Wonderful argument of Mr. Bliss, of New York, in favor of Mc- 
Kinley bill — Same in relation to our internal commerce — He forgot 
that free-trade always existed between the states— TVould not work 
very well otherwise — Of farm products we have an increasing surplus 

— What must we do if we have no outlet ? — Table showing benefit of 
Mills bill, with remarks of Stewart, of Georgia — Farmers and laborers 
the real business men of the country — Others are gamblers and specu- 
lators — High tariff makes millionaires of millmen, but not of farmers 
— Commerce not to be tolerated by Republicans — Injurious effects of 
tax on tin to farmers — Blaine's reciprocity scheme — It is a fraud — No 
outlet for om* farm products in South America — South American de- 
velopments — They compete with us in European markets — Reciproci- 
ty and ship subsidies intended for benefit of manufacturers — Illus- 
trations — Tariff pictures — Demand for higher protection is a demand 
for higher prices — Maine men always working for subsidies — Eng- 
land's carrying trade not due to ship subsidies — We had no subsidies 
when we contested the supremacy of the ocean successfully with Eng- 
land — Our carrying trade between 1845 and 1855 exceeded that of 
England — Cause of its decline — We have tried subsidies, but they 
were a failure, as well as the railroad to Mexico, under high tariff — 
Table illustrating — Reciprocity not consistent with war tariff — Reci- 
procity treaties should be made with countries to whom we sell bur 
surplus farm products — Such treaties not intended to loosen the grasp 
of the manufacturers on our consumers — It is a blind and a fraud — 
John Sherman a barbarian — In 1852 we sent fleet to Japan to compel 
them to trade — Americans cannot build and navigate ships, and why 
— Testimony of Girard Brown as to cause of depressed state of farming 
industry — Facts and figures — Freedom of outlet required — Foreign 



CONTENTS. xi 

PAGE, 

capital invited and controls many of our greatest factories — They 
think a high tariff a good thing for them, therefore they come here — 
Andrew Carnegie and how his fortune is made — Capital not concerned 
about the masses — Increase of wealth of Massachusetts compared with 
several Western states — Andrew Jackson and Justice Miller — We 
have no natural impediments to progress — The tariff on sugar — Re- 
publicans stultify themselves here — A bounty no protection — Degrades 
the industry — Miserable excuses for this — Removing the tax from 
sugar and doubling it upon many other articles a fraud ; it was sec- 
tional legislation — The trusts hit by Republicans with a straw club — 
Table showing tax for benefit of trusts prior to passage of Mills bill — 
McKinley bill 20 per cent, greater 74 

CHAPTER III. 

Haeeison's Adminstkation, the Election Bill, and othee Questions. 

The election bill — Its iniquities — Its object — Kind of men usually 
appointed as ofiicers imder Federal election bills — Is it possible that 
the people cannot longer choose the managers of their elections ? — 
Such a bill not constitutional — Arrogancy, impudence and austerity 
of New England manufacturers and capitalists — Idiocrasy of Repre- 
sentative Greenhalge — Xew England the stronghold of the old British 
Federal party — They truthfully charged with political crimes — What 
they did with their slaves — They prevented its abolition — Conduct of 
New England during the war of 1812 — Republican name a synonym 
of fraud— How the force bill was launched into existence — What 
Republicans said of themselves in former days of corruption — What 
Representative O'Neall, of Indiana, says of Republican gerrymander- 
ing — It is a grand fraud — Presidential election in 1888 carried by 
fraud — Statements showing this conclusively— New England gerry- 
mandering — The educational bill and Republican promises — What 
the negro will learn when he becomes educated — John J. Ingalls' war 
record — Colored men not recognized in the North — Only fit to run the 
South — McKinley bill injurious to the colored people — Exciting 
animosity between colored people and their white neighbors injurious 
to them — The new Reed rules — Their infamous character — Nothing 
beneficial resulting from Harrison's administration — Republican un- 
Americanism 148 

CHAPTER IV. 

Republican Mismanagement of the Financial Officees of the 

goveenment. 
'can policy the contraction of the currency — They want the coun- 
^""he verge of financial panic — Determined to destroy silver and 
^ the government notes from circulation — Demonetized silver 



xii CONTENTS. 

t>AGfi. 

in midst of the panic of 1873 — They said it was a mistake, but would 
not correct it — Bland bill passed over the veto of President Hayes — 
Funded currency purchased for 50 cts. on the dollar into interest-bear- 
ing bonds — Advantages given to bondholders — Perfidy of John Sher- 
man — Soldiers swindled by John Sherman's funding scheme — Sher- 
man's refusal to pay out silver to pay interest on .bonds — Sherman's 
complaint of vaults being overloaded with silver — His violation of the 
laws of Congress — IS'o such thing as government gold obligations — 
Neither gold nor silver is money without legal tender quality — Law 
and the contract in relation to government bonds — The masses not 
treated same as bondholders — They never helped the government, but 
Republican party rewarded them — Government credit needs no 
strengthening — Its credit always good — Funding bonds beyond call — 
Pet idea of John Sherman — Premium on bonds due to the demands for 
national bank basis — Bankers do not want the bonds paid — National 
banks want no currency except national bank notes, and no coin ex- 
cept gold — Mr. Arthur knew their desires — How they are favored — 
Their capital is doubled and the government loans them its credit- 
Letter of John Sherman, stating what he would do for them — $80,- 
000,000 of gold exchanged for silver — Miserable excuses for contract- 
ing the currency — Extent of contraction — Times good when plenty 
of money in circulation — After contraction ruin followed — Proof of 
the amount of contraction between 1865 and 1872 — Figures won't lie — 
Republican party always intended to destroy silver and withdraw the 
government notes from circulation — Proof of this — Republicans pre- 
vent reform — Not money enough in circulation — Country depressed 
for that reason — Money piled away in great money centers does people 
no good — Plenty of money circulation makes good times, a scarcity 
of money, hard times — This demonstrated — People have no clearing 
houses — What John A. Logan said — Charges Republicans Avith fraud 
— John Sherman and Carl Schurz say that the more money we have 
the less we have — People have too much confidence in corrupt leaders 
— Purchasing power of money — Who benefited by it — Prosperous 
times after the discovery of gold in California and Australia — Millions 
more of coined money the cause — Not one-tenth coin enough to do 
world's business now — The currency outstanding at the close of the 
war — Proof — Our present circulating medium per capita — Illustra- 
tion showing need of more money circulation — People need more 
money now than twenty-five years ago, for population has doubled — 
Money circulation should keep pace with increase of population and 
demands of business — This opposed by the moneyed power — Secre- 
tary McCulloch's fraudulent moralizing — People never complain o 
depression when money plenty — People became depressed when tb 
money was taken from circulation — Failures increased enormou 
Losses in 1873 in the billions — Increase of paupers from 1866 to 
Crazy Carl Schurz — A sample of his logic — Bob Ingers 



CONTENTS. xiii 

PAGE. 

anxious to pleaso Republicans — His delusive assertions concerning 
wealth and poverty — The great creditor class understand finance — 
They love to see people duped — Hard times not caused by any mys- 
terious freak of nature — The less money in circulation the more it is 
worth — When scarce everybody goes in debt — English bonded indebt- 
edness — "We need no bonded indebtedness for the benefit of an aris- 
tocracy — Government notes wero always redeemable paper — We 
never had any irredeemable paper money — Notes and bonds founded 
on faith and credit of government — Our notes misrepresented — 
Men in high position will lie to the public — Government notes were 
more honest money than gold — Honest money — Xo money of the 
world — Banks necessary, but should not have the power to control 
money of the country — Old TJnited States Bank taught Jackson and 
the people its power, to their sorrow — Control over the currency 
should not be delegated to banks — The national banks — If abolished, 
no danger of the wild-cat banks returning — National banks can easily 
be dispensed with ,.. 217 

CHAPTER Y. 

The Silver Question. 

Moneyed power wants none but gold coin — "Want to be able to comer the 
government in an emergency — Free silver coinage would baffle them 
— Free coinage would tend to supply increasing demand for money — 
Wall street never ceases clamoring for a contraction of money circula- 
tion — The reason — Schemes to render silver unpopular — The trade 
dollar deception — John Sherman's cart-wheel dollar — Sherman's and 
Harrison's silver storage bill — Is a bill to prevent the coinage of silver 
and in the interest of bullion speculators — It is a worse subtreasury 
bill than asked for by the alliance — McKinlcy's argument on silver 
shown up — Silver coinage a safeguard against panics — Silver certifi- 
cate, based on coin dollar for dollar, don't suit sharks — National 
banks the result of bonds — And banks want the bonds made perpetual 
— Silver certificate better than the banknote — Reasons why — The 
banks want to furnish all the currency — No wonder, as it is a present 
to them — Silver the oldest coin known — England laid the foundation 
of her power with it — It paid the debt of the revolution, that of 
1812, and the war with Mexico in 1848 — We would not become a 
dumping gi'ound for -ilver of other countries — Statements proving 
this — Silver in France — Three-fourths of earth's surface silver standard 
territory — England wants cheap silver bullion for her Indian trade — 
Gold standard in England, and silver standard in India — Silly argument 
of McKinley and John Sherman on silver — The ways by which silver 
can be gotten into circulation showing John Sherman a fraud — Object 
of resumption — Moneyed power does not desire any government 



xiT CONTENTS. 

PAGE. 

Clltt'eiicy — Sih'er coin will purchase the gold coin — Instances of ex- 
changes — Silver more inflexible as a standard — Proof of this — 
Speeches in opposition to free coinage — Speech of Air. Williams — 
Eights of creditors — Europe has silver coin to sell — Speech of Mr. 
Harter — Effect of free coinage on contracts — Credit makes currency 
— Bland bill will debase currency — Our coinage history — Class legis- 
lation — The real remedy — Effect on labor — Speech of Mr. Taylor — 
Katios of gold to silver — How silver affects India — Speech of Mr. 
Hopkins — A fixed standard needed — Population and circulation in 
U. S. — Eflects of inflation — Yiews of Andrew Jackson — Speech, 
of Mr. Covert — Instances of unsound finance 258 

CHAPTER Yl. 

BlOGEAPHT OF GeOVEE CLEVELAND. 

His ancestry — School days — A law student — His industry and applica- 
tion — llis associates — Admitted to the bar — Assistant district attor- 
ney — Nominated for district attorney — Elected sheriff — Elected 
mayor — Speech on accepting nomination for mayor — Message to the 
Council — His reforms — Public approval — Protest against imprison- 
ment of American citizens abroad — Elected Governor — His magnifi- 
cent majority — Yetoes — Appointments — Fulfillment of pledges — 
Yiews upon corporations — His record as Governor — Speech to 
Albany High School — Nominated for President — The campaign — 
"Tell the truth" — His election — Resignation of Governorship — 
Inaugural address — Death of Yice President Hendricks — First mes- 
sage — Civil service reform — Public lands — Address at Harvard 
anniversary — Address at dodi.cation of Garfield monument — Address 
at Clinton centennial — Address at Constitution centennial — Campaign 
of 1888 — Public interest in Mr. Cleveland — Personal qualities — 
Reminiscences 381 

CHAPTER YII. 

BlOGEAPHT OF AdLAI E. SXEVEIfSON. 

Ancestry — Early life — Education — Admitted to the bar — His first 
case — Master of chancery — State's attorney — Record in Congress — 
Speeches in the House — First Assistant Post Alaster General — His 
work for the World's Fair — His home life — Workingmen's tribute 
to him 465 

CHAPTER VIII. 

The Chicago CoxvE^'TION^. 

Organization — Chairman Owen's speech — Second day's proceedings — 
Speech of Senator Palmer — Chairman Wilson's speech — Platform — 
Speech of Mr. Abbett nominating Grover Cleveland — The vote — 
Nomination of Adlai E. Stevenson 483 

CHAPTER IX. 

Democeatic Peixciples. 

Principles of Jefferson — Principles of Jackson — Principles of Tilden... 524 

CHAPTER X. 

Beief Histoey of Political Paeties. 

Federalists and Anti-Federalists — Republicans and Whigs —Whigs and 

Democrats — Democrats and Republicans — Minor parties 530 

Special — Appendix — Cleveland's message 541 



THE FRAUDS MD FALSEHOODS OF THE 
REPUBLICAN PARTY. 



CHAPTER I. 

CLEVELA:N'D^S ADAIIXISTKATIOi^'^ THE TARIFF AI^D OTHER 

QUESTIONS. 

THE merits of a political party are to be ascertained from 
its past history and the principles upon which its 
organization is based, indicating its future action in rela- 
tion to governmental affairs. If the avowed sentiments of a 
great political party are such as to indicate that its control 
of this great nation will be a benefit to all classes of our 
people alike, and its past history is an assurance that thos^ 
principles will be applied in its administration of the g 
ernment, the control of such a party will unquestionably 
desirable. 

If, on the other hand, the past history of a polit 
party has been for years one of fraud, corruption, deceit, 
hypocrisy and extravagance, and the present avowed senti- 
ments of its leaders clearly indicate a continuation of its 
piratical practices, such a party should be overthrown, and 
its leaders expelled from places of trust and confidence. 

In view of all this, it certainly seems strange, after care- 
fully reviewing the history of the Republican party and its 
present avowed sentiments, that any considerable number 
pf intelligent voters can discover for what use that party or 

IS 




16 CLEVELAND'S ADMIN I STB ATI ON. 

its leaders are needed in connection with the administration 
of our government. 

They are not needed for the construction of railroads, 
which they so often boast of having been planned and put 
into operation in the Western states, and which were sub- 
sidized during the time they held the reins of government 
prior to eighteen hundred and seventy-four ; for it was the 
people^s land, consisting of an area greater than that of the 
thirteen original states, together with millions of money 
loaned from the government treasury to wealthy capitalists, 
which constructed those roads, and consequently the 
Eepublican party is not entitled to the credit therefor. 

Nor are they needed to save the colored people from a 
return to their old masters in slavery ; for, it has certainly 
come to pass that the colored people themselves have come 
to the conclusion that the hue and cry that they would be 
returned to slavery in case the Democratic party assumed 
control of the government, was a Eepublican fraud and 
falsehood. The colored voter is also aware of the fact that 
he was better treated by Grover Cleveland and his adminis- 
tration than by any since that of Abraham Lincoln ; for 
Cleveland recognized liberally the colored element in his 

^^'^tments, having appointed one to the high office of 
•^T^er, and in his message, December, 1886, Mr. Cleve- 
i^Scommended that Congress make an appropriation to 
pk the money lost by sixty thousand or more of poor 
^? depositors in what was known as The Freedman^s 
Savings Bank. Their money was deposited in this rotten 
concern, supposing that it was a government institution, 
which they had good reasons to believe until they found 
that they had been robbed by those whom they supposed to 
be their best friends. 

The Eepublican party is not needed for constructing a 
suitable navy ; for, during twenty-five years of their reign, 
they spent $350,000,000 for that purpose, — a sum of money 
sufficient to construct a navy three times greater than that 




CLEVELAND'S ADMINISTRATION. 17 

possessed by G-reat Britain to-day, — and at the end of the 
time they had nothing to show for it. When they com- 
menced their naval operations, after the war^ the navy con- 
sisted of a large number of vessels, carrying 4^610 guns. 
In 1884, according to the report of the secretary of the 
navy, it consisted of only one first-class vessel, eleven second- 
class, and nineteen third-class vessels, and six of those 
were about to sink. Hence, it took the Republican party 
twenty years, with 1350,000,000, to reduce our navy to ^'^a 
state of impotent insignificance." From Cleveland's admin- 
istration dates the commencement of the construction of a 
suitable navy, the money appropriated for naval purposes 
having been honestly and economically applied during his 
administration, and which closed with the construction of 
a number of powerful ironclads. 

Nor are they needed to reform the land department of 
the government ; for, under a short Democratic rule, it was 
reformed, and millions of acres of land, wrongfully held by 
cattle kings and railroad companies, were restored to the 
the settlers, where it belonged. 

They are not needed for reconstruction purposes ; for 
their work was not reconstruction but destruction. The 
moment the war closed, it became settled that there should 
be no dissolution of the Union, and the Southern people 
became immediately reconciled to the result. But the Re- 
publican party, claiming to be the party of union and free- 
dom, dissolved the Union in the most tyrannical manner by 
stripping the Southern states of all their functions of free 
government, and subjected them to the condition of con- 
quered provinces. Without dwelling here upon the mode 
and manner of the control which the Republican party had 
Jver the Southern states, we quote the following table which 
shows the debt of eleven Southern states at the close of the 
war, and what the debt was when Republican carpet-bag 
rule ceased. 



18 



CLEVELAND'S ABMINISTBATION. 



States. 



Alabama 

Arkansas 

Florida 

Georgia 

Louisiana 

North Carolina. 
South Carolina 

Mississippi 

Tennessee 

Texas 

"Virginia , 



At close of the 
war. 



$5,939,654 87 

4,036,952 87 

221,000 00 

Nominal. 

10,099,074 34 

9.699,500 00 

5.000,000 00 

Nominal. 
20,105,606 66 

Nominal. 
31,938,144 59 



$87,139,933 33 



After recon- 
struction. 



Increase. 



$38,381,967 37 
19,761,265 62 
15,763,447 54 
50,137,500 00 
50,540,206 61 
34,887,467 85 
39,158,914 47 
20,000,000 00 
45,688,263 46 
20,361,000 00 
45,480,542 21 



$380,160,575 13 



$32,442,312 50 
15,724,312 75 
15,542,447 54 
50,137,500 00 
40.341,132 27 
25,187,967 85 
34,158,914 47 
20,000,000 00 
25,582,656 80 
20,361,000 00 
13,542.397 62 



$293,020,641 80 



Neither is the Eepublican party needed for the benefit of 
the soldiers ; for the record shows that President Cleveland 
is the best friend the soldiers ever had. He approved 
seventy-seven more private pension bills, during the first 
two years of his administration, than Grant and Hayes 
approved in twelve years, and one hundred and thirty-seven 
more than Grarfield and Arthur approved in four years. 
He approved the Act of March 19 th, 1885, which increased- 
to $12 per month the pensions of 102,000 widows, 
minors and dependent relatives of Union soldiers. He 
approved the Act of August 4th, 1886, which increased 
the pensions of 10,030 crippled and maimed soldiers, from 
124 to 130, and from $30 to $37 and $45 per month. He 
approved the Act of January 29th, 1887, which placed 
upon the pension roll 25,000 survivors and widows of the 
Mexican war. He approved the bill passed June 7th, 
1887, granting arrears of pensions to 10,000 widows. 
While there were 1,524 pension bills passed and approved 
under Republican rule, all told, Cleveland approved 1,264 
private pension bills during the first three years and four 
months of his administration ; besides. President Cleveland 
appointed more Union soldiers to office than any other 
president. 

Then, in the pension office, there was disbursed in pay- 
ment of pensions $16,000,000 more during the first two 



CLEVELAND'S ADMINI8TBATI0N. 19 

years of Cleveland's administration than during the previous 
two years under Eepublican rule. During the first two 
years of Cleveland's administration there were 15,409 more 
pensioners enrolled than during the two years previous un- 
der President Arthur, and during the year 1887 there were 
5,017 more original pension certificates issued than had ever 
before been issued in any one year since the war ; and all 
this was done with a reduction of 124 of the clerical force 
in the pension office. These figures are taken from official 
statistics and are correct, and show that Republicans had 
failed to do their duty toward the soldiers during the long 
period of time they had the supreme power in their hands. 

But this is not all. Of the seventeen pension agents ap- 
pointed by Cleveland sixteen were Union soldiers, and the 
seventeenth was Mrs. M. A. Mulligan, the widow of a dis- 
tinguished Union soldier who was killed in battle. 

Among the appointments of Union soldiers were to be 
found G-enerals Eosecrans, Corse, Siegel, Black, Bragg, 
Budd, McMahon, Franklin, Davis, Bartlett, Colonel McClean 
and Colonel Danby, and hundreds of others who were ap- 
pointed to fill positions such as post-offices and the like in the 
various departments of government ; and it is a known fact 
that there never was a time in the history' of the govern- 
ment when there were more soldiers employed in the public 
service than during Cleveland's administration. 

Of course. Republicans complain that soldiers were 
removed, which was true in some instances ; but it is also 
true that, in such cases. Union soldiers were appointed in 
their places. Of course it never pleases the Republican 
party to see a Democratic soldier appointed in the place of 
one with Republican proclivities. That party has, since 
the war, refused to recognize the soldier who voted the 
Democratic ticket, no matter how many scars he may bear 
from the effects of hard-fought battles for his country. 
While President Cleveland allowed hundreds of Republican 
soldiers to remain in office, a Democratic soldier was 



20 CLE VELANB'S ADMINISTBA TION. 

scarcely ever known to hold a position in the service under 
Eepublican rule. Then why all this disreputable effort to 
bring discredit upon Cleveland's administration with the 
soldiers, while the record shows that they were more fairly 
treated by him than by any former president ? 

They claim that Cleveland was the enemy of the Union 
soldier^ for the reason that he vetoed 199 private pension 
bills. Had he desired to show his animosity to the 
soldiers, he could easily have done so by vetoing the 1,264 
bills approved by him, and allowing the 199 to pass. 

But we assert that Cleveland's vetoes of private pension 
bills were proper, and his reasons therefor were sound. 
He vetoed one private pension bill for the reason that the 
claimant had served nine months in the Confederate army, 
and thus frustrated the attempt to pension Confederate 
soldiers. He vetoed four bills for the reason that the appli- 
cants were deserters, and had been dishonorably discharged. 
General Grant vetoed nine bills on the same ground, all that 
came before him, but he is pronounced a patriot, and 
Cleveland an enemy of the soldier for so doing. Cleveland 
vetoed seventeen private pension bills for the reason that 
the applicants were not in the military service at the time 
their disabilities were incurred. Grant vetoed all such that 
came before him ; still, Cleveland is denounced as an enemy 
of the soldier, while Grant is proclaimed a patriot for doing 
the same thing. Cleveland vetoed ten private pension bills 
for the reason that the claimants were receiving pensions 
equal to the amount allowed by law for their disabilities. 
President Grant vetoed all such bills, consisting of three, 
all which came before him of this kind, for the same rea- 
son. Yet Kepublicans denounce Cleveland as a traitor to 
the soldiers, and pronounce Grant a patriot for doing the 
same thing. Ought not such conduct to be denounced as 
shameful and cowardly ? 

During Cleveland's administration Republican members 
introduced in Congress an incredible number of private 



CLEVELANJyS ADMINISTBATION. 21 

pension bills, a number unheard of prior to his administra- 
tion, for the purpose of inviting opposition, and thereby 
creating a prejudice against him on the part of the soldiers. 

But Grover Cleveland withstood the flood of fraudulent 
applications for private pensions, and signed, as every other 
Democratic president would sign, every meritorious private 
pension bill which came before him, only discarding those 
which were fraudulent. Had Cleveland approved those 
fraudulent pension bills he would have been condemned, 
even by the men who introduced them, and the country 
never would have heard the last of it. 

It is charged that Cleveland and his administration at- 
tempted to return the Confederate flags to the states where 
they belonged. A more false and corrupt charge was never 
made against mortal man. The return of the rebel flags 
originated in the mind of a high Eepublican official, no less 
than that of E. C. Drum, adjutant-general, appointed by 
President Hayes, and a member of the Grand Army of the 
Eepublic. The entire doings connected with the rebel flags 
are embodied in the following correspondence between 
Adjutant-General Drum and the Secretary of War and 
between President Cleveland and the Secretary of War. 
The following is Drum^s letter to the Secretary of War : 

War Department, Adjutant -GE^^:RAL's Office, ^ 
Washington, April 30th, '87. \ 

Sir — I have the honor to state that there are now in this oifico, stored in 
one of the attic rooms of the building, a number of Union flags captured in 
action, but recovered on the fall of the Confederacy and forwarded to the War 
Department for safe keeping, together Avith a number of Confederate flags, 
which the fortunes of war placed in our hands during the late civil war. 

While in the past favorable action has been taken on applications properly 
supported for the return of ITnion flags to organizations representing the sur- 
vivors of the military regiments in the service of the government, 1 beg to 
submit that it would be a graceful act to anticipate future requests of this 
nature, and venture to suggest the propriety of returning all the flags. Union 
and Confederate, to the authorities of the respective states in which the regi- 
ments which bore those colors were organized, for such final disposition as 
they may determine. While in all the civilized nations of the world trophies 
taken in a war against foreign enemies have been carefully preserved and 



22 CLEVELAND'S ADMINISTRATION. 

exhibited as proud mementos of the nation's military glories, wise and obvi- 
ous reasons have excepted from the rule evidences of past internecine trou- 
bles which, bj the appeal to the arbitrament of the sword, have disturbed the 
peaceful march of a people to its destiny. Over twenty years have elapsed 
since the termination of ihQ late civil war. Many of the prominent leaders, 
civil and military, of the late Confederate states are now honored representa- 
tives of the people in the national council, or in other eminent positions 
lend the aid of their talents to the wise administration of alFairs of the whole 
country, and the people of the several states composing the Union are now 
united, treading the broader road to a glorious future. 

Impressed with these views, I have the honor to submit the suggestions 
made in this letter for the careful consideration it will receive at yoi^r hands. 

Yery truly yom's, 

K,. C. Dkum, 

Adjt. -General. 
Hon. William C. Ej^-dicott, 

Secretary of War. 

Why did not Eepublican officials denounce this pet 
official and Grand Army man, whose tenure of office was so 
fixed by Eepublican legislation that he could not be removed 
for his conduct, hovever perfidious it might be ? 

This letter was submitted to President Cleveland, whose 
only action in regard to the matter was the writing of the 
following letter to the Secretary of War : 

Executive Mansiois^, ^ 

Washington, June 16th, 1887. \ 

I have to-day considered with more care than when the subject was 
originally presented to me the action of your department directing letters to 
be addressed to the governors of all the states offering to return, if desired, 
to the loyal states the flags captured in the war of the rebellion by Confeder- 
ate forces, and afterwards recovered by government troops, and to the Con- 
federate states the flags captured by the "Cnion forces, all of which have been 
packed in boxes and stored in the cellar and attic of the War Department. 

I am of the opinion that the return of these flags in the manner thus con- 
templated is not authorized by existing law nor justified as an executive act. 

I request, therefore, that no further steps be taken in the matter, except 
to examine and inventory these flags aud adopt proper measures for their 
preservation. Any direction as to final disposition of them should originate 
with Congress. Tours truly, 

Geovee Cleveland. 

The Secretary of War. 

In pursuance of the above communication, the return of 
the rebel flags was forestalled and prevented, though, under 
Republican administration, many of the rebel flags had 



CLEVELAND'S ADMINISTRATION. 23 

been returned^ and Adjutant-General Drum had notified 
the governors of the Southern states that the balance of 
the rebel flags would be returned. 

Notwithstanding as plain a record as this, Eepublican 
newspapers and stump speakers, during the campaign of 
1888, continually proclaimed to the masses that Cleveland 
was the promulgator of the scheme to return the rebel 
flags, and it seems that most Eepublicans, and many Grand 
Army men, are sufficiently dishonest to continue such a 
hue and cry, though they know that every word of it is an 
absolute falsehood. 

Some objections were made that Cleveland appointed 
rebel brigadier-generals to office. This was true, and why 
was it not proper ? The Eepublican party invited the Con- 
federates to return, and gave them the right to vote and 
hold office. They returned accordingly, and have since 
been faithful in their allegiance to the Union. They are 
to-day taking part in the legislative halls of the govern- 
ment, as they have a right to do. They have willingly 
voted appropriations for the support of the government, 
and have assisted in voting hundreds of millions of dollars 
to Union soldiers. 

Are not the citizens of the Southern states with us to 
stay ? Do we not expect to rely upon them to assist the 
government in times of war, and will they not rally around 
the old flag in such an emergency as freely and as gallantly 
as the citizens of the North or the "West ? Is not the pros- 
perity of the South of as much interest to the nation as 
that of any other portion ? Are they not a part and parcel 
of this great nation, or must we falsely contend that the 
war has never closed, and never will, until the citizens of 
the South vote the Eepublican ticket ? 

It was proper and right, in the eyes of the Eepublican 
party, that the chief executive should appoint to high 
official positions such men as General Mosby, the chief 
among guerrillas. General Longstreet, General Leer's great- 



24 CLEVELANPS ADMINISTRATION. 

est supporter at Eichmond^ the rebel General Mahone and 
some forty more. And we will say in the language of an 
able statesman : * 

The great sin, then, in the eyes of the Republican party does not consist in 
the fact that a man has been a rebel brigadier. No matter how strong a fight 
he made against the Union, no matter though he disregarded every rule of 
civilized warfare, no matter though he was the last to lay down his arms and 
acknowledge the supremacy of the Constitution, all that was necessary wai? 
to proclaim allegiance to the Republican party ; and, though his sins were as 
scarlet, he became as white as snow, and they gathered him to their bosom as 
one who was worthy of all honor, and the smile of love that wreathed their 
countenances was like the sweet smiles of a young mother when she looked 
on the face of her first-born. 

Mr. Chairman, the sin of having been a rebel is nothing in the eyes of the 
Republican party as compared with the sin of being a Democrat. That is the 
one sin they cannot forgive. No matter how true they have been to the 
government, no matter how bravely they fought for the Union, to vote the 
Democratic ticket is the one unpardonable sin. And twenty-three years after 
the war is over, when a new generation has grown up who only knows of the 
war through history and the stories of the war told them by their gray -haired 
veteran fathers, the leader of the Republican party proclaims to the world that 
such men as Hancock and McClelland, who so nobly defended the Union in 
the hour of its peril and shed their blood for its perpetuation, were allies of 
the Confederacy. 

We have no hesitation in saying that the conduct of the 
Republican party in relation to the tariff question, and oth- 
ers of as vital importance, show conclusively that we never 
had a political party so devoid of integrity and consistent 
political principles. Their record upon the tariff question 
ought to forever consign them to the shades of oblivion. 
Their first platform, in 1854, said nothing about the tariff, 
for the founders of the party knew that, at that time, the 
nation was satisfied with the tariff law of 1846, which 
averaged only 23 per cent. In 1857, the Eepublicans in 
the House of Representatives assisted in cutting down 
the tariff of 1846 until it only equaled 18 per cent, aver- 
age, less than one-half that called for by the Mills bill. 
Since the close of the war such men as Blaine, Sherman, 
Garfield, Arthur, Allison, Logan, and other leading Repub- 
licans, often asserted that the tariff on the necessaries of 




SEN. DANIEL W^. VOORHEES. 



*?■ 



CLEVELAND'S ADMINISTBATION. 27 

life and upon raw materials^ which averaged from 47 to 
to 49 per cent, before the increase by the McKinley bill, 
was too high, and that justice demanded a reduction. 

The first duties upon imports established by the Colonial government 
after our independence were substantially as follows: There were but 
few articles selected; namely, liquors, sugar, tea, coffee, cocoa, molasses 
and pepper. Under the head of liquors, Madeira wine, at that period of our 
history the beverage of the rich, and Jamaica rum, consumed by the great 
masses of the people of that day, covered the liquor schedule. Upon Ma- 
deira wine was imposed an import duty of twelve-ninetieths of a dollar per 
gallon; Jamaica rum, four-ninetieths of a dollar; Bohea tea, used by the 
wealthier classes, six-ninetieths of a dollar per pound ; other teas, twenty- 
four-ninetieths of a dollar, the latter being the heaviest tax imposed. Upon 
all other articles imported, 5 per cent, of their value. 

After the Constitution of 1789 had been adopted, it was James Madison, of 
Yirginia, who brought into the House of Eepresentatives the first tarift" bill, 
and who urged its passage. He then read the import duties of 1783, added a 
clause or two on tonnage, and urged the committee to adopt it, or at least to 
make it the basis of a temporary impost. The first proposition was that the 
mass of goods, wares and merchandise coming in from foreign ports should 
be taxed 5 per cent, on their value ; but in the list of articles on which special 
duties were to be laid, the bone of contention appeared to be on Jamaica 
rum. Two duties were suggested, one of 15 cents and one of 12 cents a gallon, 
which soon divided the Committee of the Whole. And before this question 
was settled the debate turned on the good and ill effects of low and high 
duties; but finally Jamaica rum was taxed at 10 cents a gallon. 

"When a duty of 8 cents per gallon was proposed on molasses, immediately 
every member from Massachusetts arose and protested. It was too much; 
the people would never bear it. They shouted, that the capital engaged in 
the business of distilling rum in Massachusetts out of this molasses summed 
up half a million of dollars. Yet it was now proposed to destroy this 
great industry which contributed so much to the prosperity and welfare 
of the nation, and with such persuasive earnestness did they plead, that the 
Committee of the Whole consented to lower the duty to 2^ cents per gallon. 
Some articles were thrown out and some were taxed without discussion, but 
a few gave rise to sharp debates. The greater part of two days was spent 
wrangling over salt. The bill then under consideration was reported to the 
House, but wool, and tin in pigs and bars, were on the free-list, and in three 
weeks thereafter became a law by the approval of President Washington. 
Under the tariff of 1873, eight articles were specified subject to impost duty. 
The number of articles named and taxed under the tariff of 1789 did not 
exceed thirty -two, all others being covered by the 5 per cent, clause. It is this 
tariff of 1789, introduced by Madison, approved by Jefferson, the average 
import duties of which did not exceed 7| per cent., that the Republicans tell 
us to-day the fathers of the Republic inaugurated, as protectionists, namely, 
a tariff in which the duties averaged 1\ per cent, ad valorem in 1789, with a 



28 CLEVELAND'S ADMINISTBATION. 

bankrupt government, which could not borrow a dollar, and to-day, one hun- 
dred years after, the average duty is 65 per cent. 

And here we desire the reader to examine closely some of 
the sayings of leading Eepublicans concerning the tariff 
prior to Cleveland's administration, which we here quote, 
and ask the reader to draw his own conclusion as to the sin- 
cerity of this Republican cry of free-trade, in connection 
with the tariff proposals on the part of Cleveland and the 
Democratic party. We have often heard it said that had 
the Democratic party taken the position that our high tariff 
taxes should not be reduced, but increased, that the Repub- 
lican party would have taken the precise position now occu- 
pied by the Democratic party and insisted upon the reduc- 
tions which was proposed by the Mills bill. At first, we had 
some doubt of this, but, after a careful examination, the 
conclusion is inevitable that Republicans consider that they 
can succeed in controlling the country by the force of their 
numbers, regardless of any principles or politics which they 
may inscribe upon their banners. The following quotations 
from the speeches of Blaine, Grant, Garfield, Allison, 
Logan and others, show that they were, not long since, 
stronger free-traders than they claim Democrats now are. 

James G. Blaine, June 10, 1868: During the entire war, when we were 
seeking everything on the earth, and in the skies, and in the waters under the 
earth, out of which taxation could be wrung, it never entered into the con- 
ception of Congress to tax breadstufis — never. During the most pressing 
exigencies of the terrible contest in which we were engaged, neither bread- 
stuffs nor lumber ever became the subject of one penny of taxation. * * * 
Now, as to the article of lumber, I again remind the House that there has 
never been a tax upon this article. I say that wherever the Western frontiers- 
man undertakes to make for himself a home, to till the soil, to carry on the 
business of life, he needs lumber for his cabin, he needs lumber for his fence, 
he needs lumber for his wagon or cart, he needs lumber for his plow, he 
needs lumber for almost every purpose in his daily life. 

President Grant, Annual Message, December, 1874: Those articles 
which enter into our manufactures and are not produced at home, it seems to 
me, should be entered free. Those articles of manufacture which we pro- 
duce a constituent part of, but do not produce the whole, that part which we 
do not produce should be entered free also. I will instance fine wools, dyes, 



OjEveland's administration. 29 

etc. These articles must be imported to form a part of the manufacture of 
the higher grades of -woolen goods. Chemicals used as dyes, compounded in 
medicines and used in various ways in manufactures, come under this class. 
The introduction, free of duty, of such wools as we do not produce would 
stimulate the manufacture of goods requiring the use of those we do pro- 
duce, and therefore would be a benefit to home production. 

Hugh McCulloch, Secretary of the Treasury under Presidents Lincoln 
and Arthur. Annual Keport, 1884. First : That the existing duties upon raw 
materials which are to be used in manufacture should be removed. This can 
be done in the interest of our foreign trade. Second : That the duties upon 
the articles used or consumed by those who are the least able to bear the 
bm'den of taxation should be reduced. This also can be effected without 
prejudice to our export trade. 

JoH^' Sheemax, 1872: It must be remembered that the present duties, 
taken together, are far in excess of what they were before the war, and that 
they have been three times largely increased since the passage of the Morrill 
tariff act of 1861. * * * Such excessive protection not only ceases to 
diversify production, but forces labor into protected employments. If the 
present rates of duty were high enough during and since the war, when home 
industry was burdened with heavy internal taxes — with stamp duties, income 
taxes, and high rates on raw materials — then surely they are now too high 
when all these taxes are rem.oved. 

Senator Sheeman, of Ohio, 1867 : In considering so complicated a sub- 
ject as a tariff', nothing can be more deceptive than the application of such 
general phrases as a "protective tariff," "a revenue tariff," "a free-trade 
tariff." Every law imposing a duty on imported goods is necessarily a restraint 
on trade. It imposes a burden upon the purchase and sale of imported goods 
and tends to prevent every importation. The expeessiox, "a fsee-teade 
TAEIFF," INVOLVES AN ABSUEDiTT. If you couversc with intelligent men en- 
gaged in the business of, manufacturing they will tell you that they are 
willing to compete with England, France, Germany, and all the countries of 
Em-ope, at the old rates of duty. If you reduce their products to a specie 
basis, and put them on the same footing they were on before the war, the 
present rates of duty would be too high. It would not be necessary for scarce 
any branch of industry to be protected to the extent of your present tariff law. 
They do not ask protection against the pauper labor of Europe, but they ask 
protection against the creation of your own laws. 

General John A. Logan, April 18, 1870: Xow when the gentleman, 
who seems to be the protector in an especial manner of the great labor inter- 
ests of this country, speaks of this protection being the protection of the 
labor of this country, I ask him : Does not every farmer and mechanic in this 
broad land make use of iron in all kinds of labor? The 4,000,000 men that have 
been freed recently are laborers, are producers, not manufacturers. They are 
not men of skilled labor; they evidently are not men who are protected. And 
then there are the men in the Northwest who produce corn, wheat, oats, pork and 



30 CLEVELAND'S ADMINISTRATION. 

beans, etc.; they are producers and consumers, and are not protected ; and it 
is they who pay this large amount of money into the pockets of the manu- 
facturers of this article. And Tphen a gentleman stands upon this floor and 
tells me that this high, this extraordinarily high tariff is for the protection of 
the laboring men I tell him that I do not xmderstand how he can possibly. 
substantiate such a theory. 

Senator Sherman, March 15, 1872: 1 have listened with patience, day by 
day, to the statements of gentlemen who are interested in our domestic pro- 
ductions. I am a firm believer in the general idea of protecting their indus- 
tries, but I assure them, as I assure their representatives here, that if the pres- 
ent high rates of duty, unexampled in our country, and higher by nearly 50 
per cent, than they were in 1861, are maintained on metallic and textile fabrics 
after we have repealed the very internal taxes which gave rise to them, and 
after we have substantially given them their raw materials free of duties, we 
shall have a feeling of dissatisfaction among other interests in the country that 
will overthrow the whole system, and do greater harm than can possibly be 
done by a moderate reduction of the present rates of duty. 

Senator Allison, March 24, 1870 I will say with regard to the duty on 
wool and woolens, that I regard it not as an intentional fraud, but as 
operating as though it were a fraud upon the great body of the people of the 
TJnited States. I allude to the woolen tariff, a law, the effect of which has 
been to materially injure the sheep husbandry of this country. In a single 
county in the State of Iowa, between 1867 and 1869, the number of sheep was 
reduced from 22,000 to about 18,000 in two years, and what is true of this 
county is true, to a greater or less extent, of other counties in Iowa, and dur- 
ing this time the price of wool has been constantly depreciated. 

Mr. Laivrence — I should like the gentleman to inform me how a reduction 
of the duties on wool and woolen goods would inure to the advantage of the 
wool grower? 

Mr. Allison — I will tell the gentleman how, in my judgment, the wool 
grower will be benefited. As the law now is the tariff' upon fine wools of a 
character not produced in this country is 100 per cent, upon their cost. The 
tariff upon woolens of the same class is only about 50 per cent., so that the 
finer woolen goods are imported, and not the coarser fabrics. Before the 
tariff of 1867 our manufacturers of fine goods mixed foreign fine wools with 
our domestic product, and were thus able to compete successfully with the 
foreign manufacturer of similar wools. But being prohibited from importing 
this class af wools, these fine goods cannot now be produced in this country 
as cheaply as they can be imported. Consequently, mills that were formerly 
engaged in producing these goods have been compelled to abandon business 
or manufacture the coarser fabrics. If they could afford to manufacture 
those fine goods they Avould make a market which we do not now have for 
our fine wools to be mixed with other fine wools of a different character from 
abroad. This Avant of a market, as I understand it, is the reason why our 
fine wools now command so low a price. There is no demand for them at 
homo, and we cannot export them in competition with fine wools grown in 
other countries. 



CLEVELANjyS ADMINISTRATION. 31 

Repttblicaxs Tote foe Feee Coal June 6, 1870: Resolved, That the 
Committee of TTays and Cleans is hereby instructed, at the earliest moment 
practicable to report a bill to this House to abolish the tariff on coal so as to 
secure that important article of fuel to the people free from all taxes. 

Ayes — Allison, Cullom, Dawes, Hale, Hawley, Logan. 

Sexatoe Allison, of Iowa, March 24, 1879 : The agricultural interest, it 
will be seen, is much the largest interest in its aggregate product as Avell as in 
the number of persons employed. I believe no one will claim that this 
large interest is directly protected. It is true that under customs laws there 
is a small duty upon wheat, barley, oats, and other agricultural products, but i* 
does not afford any protection to the great wheat and grain producing re'gions 
of the country. 

"What is true of wheat is equally true of other grains. Therefore the far- 
mer has practically no protection at all, and whatever benefit he derives is 
from what the home market furnishes for home products. Unfortunately for 
the farmer, the market price of wheat is fixed by the price which the surplus 
will bring abroad, or the price of wheat in London or Livei-pool. At that 
market where the surplus is sold, and which fixes the value of the whole 
crop, he comes in competition with the grain produced in the Crimea, in Hun- 
gary, and in the region of the Baltic, from fields cultivated by what is known 
in comparison %n.th our own as jycii'.per labor. 

But I am told we must so legislate as to furnish a home market for all our 
agricultural products, and this can only be donq by high tariff. Anyone ex- 
amining the subject will see that our agricultural products increase more 
rapidly than our population, so that if we do not export these products in 
their natural condition we must do so by converting them into manufactured 
articles, and export these articles. But this cannot be done under a high 
tariff, for all nations will buy manufactured products where they are the 
cheapest, and the nation selling the cheapest will control the market. This 
rule excludes our highly taxed manufactures made from highly taxed ma- 
terials from the markets of the world, although we have natural advantages 
possessed by no other nation. 

Senatoe ilOEEiLL, of Yermout, 1870: It is a mistake of the friends of a 
sound tariff to insist upon the extreme rates imposed dui'ing the war. 

Sexatoe William B. Allisox, of Iowa, March 24, 1870: The tariff of 
1846, although confessedly and professedly a tariff for revenue, was, so far as 
regards all the great interests of the country, as perfect a tariff as any that 
we have ever had. 

But I may be asked how this reduction shall be made. I think it should 
be made upon aH leading articles, or nearly all, and for that purpose, when I 
can get an opportunity in the House, if no gentleman does before me, I shall 
move that the pending bill be recommitted to the Committee on "Ways and 
Means, with instructions to report a reduction upon existing rates of duty 
equivalent to 20 per cent, upon existing rates, or one-fifth reduction. [The 
Mills bill proposes a reduction of 7 per cent.] 



32 CLEVELAND'S ADMINISTBATION. 

They pay upon everything. Look for a moment at what they eat. There 
is a tariff duty on beef, on pork, hams and bacon, butter and lard, cheese, mo- 
lasses, grapes, wheat flour, oats, corn meal, rye, barley, potatoes, raisins, 
vinegar, honey, rice and rice meal, sugar, extract of meat, pickles, 
currants, apples, salt and condensed milk. The list is substantially an in- 
ventory of the stock of the grocery store at which they buy. There is a 
duty on the coal which warms them, on their cooking and household utensils, 
on their entire clothing from their hats to their stockings, on the medicines 
given them when they are sick, and on the roofs over their heads. 

Hon. Knute Nelson, M. C, Republican, of Minnesota, March 29, 1888: 
In the face of these platform pledges ; in the face of these admissions from 
un\^illing witnesses ; in the face of the large, ever-growing and threatening 
surplus, taken from the people by taxation and used by certain banks without 
any consideration therefor ; and in the face of the fact that so many of the barest 
necessaries of life are loaded down with the highest kind of tariff taxes, it 
makes me sick at heart to think that there are leading men on this side of the 
Chamber who can find at this juncture, and under these circumstances, no 
other field for tax reduction than the internal revenue taxes on spirits and 
tobacco. Surely these things are not the diet on which the poor laboring 
man keeps his family. 

Worthier, better, andjuster, it seems to my mind, would it be to give our 
people — the toiling masses — cheaper food, cheaper fuel, cheaper clothing, 
and cheaper shelter — cheaper because released from the heavy and unnec- 
essary bondage of high tariff taxes. 

Chester A. Aethue's Letter of Acceptance, 1880 : Such changes should be 
made in the present tariff system of taxation as shall relieve every burdened 
industry, and enable our artisans and manufacturers to compete successfully 
with those of other lands. 

James A. Garfield, April 1, 1870: Duties should be so high that our 
manufacturers can fairly compete with the foreign product, but not so high as 
to enable them to drive out the foreign articles, enjoy a monoply of the trade, 
and regulate the prices as they please. This is my doctrine of protection. If 
Congress pursues this line of policy steadily we shall, year by year, approach 
more nearly to the basis of free-trade, because we shall be more nearly able to 
compete with other nations on equal terms. I am for a protection which 
leads to ultimate free-trade. 

President Arthur, Annual Message, 1882: A total abolition ofexdse taxes 
ivould almost inevitably 2>Tove a serious^ if not an insunnountable obstacle to a 
thorough revision of the tariff, and to any considerable reduction in import 
duties. The present tariff" system is, in many respects, unjust. It makes 
unequal distributions, both of its burdens and its benefits. * * * i 
recommend an enlargement of the free-list so as to include within it the 
numerous articles which yield inconsidei'able revenue, a simplification of the 
complex and inconsistent schedule of duties upon certain manufactures, 
particularly those of cotton, iron and steel, and a substantial reduction of the 



CLEVELAND'S ADMINISTRATION. 33 

duties upon those articles, and upon sugar, molasses, silk, wool, and woolen 
goods. 

Chakles J. FoLGEK, Secretary of the Treasury under President Arthur, 
Annual Report, 1882: All agree that a revision of the tariff is necessary. 
The action of Congress in creating a commission for that purpose renders dis- 
cussion on that point unnecessary, * * * The Secretary earnestly recom- 
mends a careful revision of the tariff with a view to substantial reductions. 

President Arthur, Fourth Message, 1884 : The healthful enlargement of 
our trade with Europe, Asia and Africa should he sought by reducing tariff 
burdens on such of their wares as neither we nor the other American States 
are fitted to produce, and thus enabling ourselves to obtain in return a better 
market for our supplies of food, of raw materials, and of the manufactures in 
which we excel. 

Charles J. Folger, Secretary of tha Treasury, Annual Report, 1883 : In 
the recommendations of the President and those of this department, and the 
action of Congress, and in the expression of public opinion, there has been 
substantial accord as to how the needed reduction of the revenue should be 
brought about. It has been generally conceded that the internal revenue 
taxes, except those upon spirits, fermented liquors, and upon the circulation of 
banks, might well be abolished. My last report said that taxes upon spirits 
and tobacco, being upon things not needful, should he retained rather than 
those upon the common necessaries of life ; which, as a proprosition, is not to 
he controverted. But it was conceded by all that a substantial reduction should 
be made upon nearly all imported articles subjected to duties. 

And in 1883 a Kepublican commission, appointed in pur- 
suance of the request of President Arthur, recommended a 
15 per cent, greater reduction than the 42 per cent, 
average which the Mills bill provided for, and in 1884 
the platform upon which James Gr. Blaine ran for president 
pledged the Eepablican party to lower the tariff, and thus 
relieve the people from unnecessary taxation. But during 
the campaign of 1888, and since, they have cried '^^ free- 
trade,'^'' and threw the entire weight of their party organiza- 
tion against the fair and equitable provisions of the Mills 
bill, and declared, in national convention, that they pre- 
ferred to remove the revenue tax from whisky and tobacco 
rather than reduce the tariff on the necessaries of life. 
Was such prevarication ever known before ? What a 
spectacle ! Six millions of people use tobacco as a luxury, 
and sixty-two millions use clothing, cotton and woolen 



34 CLEVELAND'S ADMINISTRATION. 

goods^ tin, iron, fuel, etc., taxed, at that time, on an average 
of 75 per cent. Only think what a reform that would be : 
high-priced clothing, blankets and all other necessaries of 
life, and cheap whisky and tobacco ! This is the doctrine 
taught by this moral Eepublican party. Take the tax from 
whisky, and what a carnival would take place. "Whisky 
would then be made freely by everybody who could procure 
a worm for that purpose, at 15 cents per gallon, and '^^the 
old crop of drunkards would revel in it, because of its 
cheapness, and the new crop of tipplers would become as 
the sands of the ocean beach." The result would be that 
the distilleries would soon outnumber the school-houses, 
and there be no limit to the supply of free whisky. We 
want no such reform. If we are to have a reform, let it be 
such as will minister to the health and comfort of every 
humble cottage in the land. 

Their conduct in relation to the Chinese question is none 
the less prevaricating and hypocritical. The Eepublican 
party has always been the pro-Chinese party. It always 
refused to assist in the passage of laws placing any restric- 
tion upon Chinese immigration, and has, as a party, voted 
almost unanimously against any and all such measures when 
proposed. President Hayes vetoed an anti-Chinese bill, 
and President Arthur did the same thing. In order to de- 
ceive the voters of California and the great West they in- 
serted in their national platform, in 1888, opposition to 
Chinese labor, but cap23ed the climax by nominating a man 
for president who, while in Congress, voted fourteen times 
against propositions to restrict Chinese immigration, and 
who maintained from beginning to end, first, that the 
prayers of the Californians were insincere ; second, that 
Congress was powerless to grant them ; third, that if Con- 
gress had the right and the authority it should not act ; and 
to sustain tlie third 23roposition he advocated the amalgama- 
tion of the two races that the Chinaman might become a 
part of our national life and society. Harrison is probably 



CLE VE LAND'S ADMINISTBA TION. 35 

the only American or European who ever advocated so pre- 
posterous a doctrine, a doctrine which every American 
knows to be a gross insult to him and his race. Had the 
Democratic party nominated a man for president with such 
a record upon the Chinese question there would have gone 
up such a howl from the Republican camp as would have 
shaken the continent from Maine to California. 

To excite national prejudice among those who are too 
ignorant to detect its falsity. Republicans asserted, during 
the campaign of 1888, that England was rejoicing over the 
prospects of the passage of the Mills bill. Every such 
assertion was absolutely false. Not a single newspaper in 
England ever stated that the passage of the Mills bill would 
be a benefit to English factories. The fact is, England is 
now satisfied to see our factory men rob the masses here while 
they supply the world with what manufactured commodi- 
ties they need, and the only fear England has is that we 
may so shape our tariff laws as to enable our factories to 
compete with hers in the markets of the world so far as 
manufactured commodities are concerned, and which they 
believe will not be the case when Ave remove the tariff on 
raw materials. 

Talk about high protective tariff being an American sys- 
tem ! The truth is it is virtually an English and a Chinese 
institution. It had its origin, so far as Europe is concerned, 
in piracy upon the high seas, but it was adopted more than 
a century prior to 1846 in England, and was, during that 
time, more thoroughly develo]3ed there than in any other 
country in Europe. While China has always maintained 
the highest tariff wall of any country in the world, England 
maintained the highest tariff on necessaries of any nation in 
Europe until 1846, at which time she found that the great 
mass of her people were reduced to a state of pauperism. 
Common laborers could obtain no wages at all, while but 
few skilled workmen could obtain but a shilling a day. So 
great was the poverty of the masses that it bect^me neces^ 



36 CLEVELAND'S ABMINISTBATION. 

sary to open the government treasury to save the multitude 
from starvation. To show what was the result of long con- 
tinued protection in England, we will quote what Mrs. Mar- 
tineau says in her history concerning the condition of affairs 
in England in 1845 ; facts which were revealed in pursu- 
ance of a parliamentary investigation through a committee 
appointed for that purpose, to wit; 

In Carlisle the committee reported that one-fourth of the population was in 
a state bordering on starvation, actually certain to die of famine, if not 
relieved. In the woolen districts of Wiltshire the pay of the farm laborer is 
not two-thirds of the minimum in the workhouse, and the large existing pop- 
ulation consumed only a fourth of the bread required by the much smaller 
population of 1820. In Stockport more than half the master spinners had failed. 
Five thousand workmen were walking the streets in forced idleness, and the 
overseers of the poor wrote to the government that the distress was beyond 
their control. At Manchester rent collectors were afraid to meet their princi- 
pals, as no rent could be collected. Provision dealers were subject to incur- 
sions from a wolfish man prowling for food for his children, or from a half 
frantic Avoman, with her dying baby at her breast, or from parties often, or a 
dozen desperate wretches, who were levying contributions along the street. 
Linen drapers reported that they sold no clothes, but only rags and scraps to 
mend old ones. Bakers were surprised at the increase of persons who bought 
half-pennyworths of bread. A provision dealer used to throw away outside 
scraps, but now respectable customers of twenty years' standing bought them to 
moisten their potatoes. Shop-keepers contemplated nothing but ruin. While 
poor rates were increasing beyond all precedents, their trade was only one-half 
or one-third, or one-tenth what it had been. Men Avho had formerly got £2 
a week had sold everything to get food, and were trying to obtain from 
the poorhouse blue milk to water the children's porridge; but this was only 
given out once a day. At Leeds the pauper stone-heap amounted to 150,000 
tons; the guardians offered heads of families 6 shillings a week for doing 
nothing, rather than 7 shillings and G pence for working. Millwrights offered 
their hands aid to emigrate. At Hinckley one-third of the people were 
paupers. Two-thirds of the weavers were laid off. At Dorsetshire the wages 
for a man and his wife were 2 shillings and 6 pence (60 cents) per week. In Wilt- 
shire meetings of workmen and their families A^ero held, and each sufferer told 
the audience how ho or she managed to keep body and soul together among 
their children. The bare details of the ages of the children and what the little 
things could do, and the prices of bacon and bread and calico and coals, had 
more pathos in them than any oratory heard up there. 

Extracts could be given from other historians concerning 
the condition to which the English people were reduced 
under the benign influence of high protective tariff, show- 



CLEVELAND'S ADMINI8TBATI0N. 37 

ing a more frightful state of things than is here given, but 
it is unnecessary to quote them here. Any man of ordinary 
understanding can readily see to what a condition wages 
had been reduced in consequence of the tariff wall which 
China had maintained around her dominions for centuries. 
It can be asserted without successful contradiction that 
this modern Republican party of this country is the British 
party. It is the lineal descendant of the old Federal party, 
which was organized after our revolution, and contained in 
its ranks all British sympathizers during that war ; a party 
which was determined to ape English ways, and to shape 
our constitution and forms of government after those of 
England. The old Federalists would have framed our con- 
stitution according to the advice of Alexander Hamilton, 
so that the president elect would have held his office for life, 
because it came nearer the personation of an English 
monarch ; while, not long since, an effort was made by a 
strong following of the Republican party to increase the 
number of terms the president might hold the office, which 
would have been the first step toward the Federal (English) 
idea. The old Federal party favored the United States 
bank patterned after the Bank of England, to which was 
delegated by the government the power to say how much or 
how little currency we should have in circulation from day 
to day, or from month to month, thus granting to it the 
power to control the prices of all kinds of property and 
produce. And now the Republican party would, and proba- 
bly will, when they consider that they can retain control 
after so doing, delegate to the national banks the power to 
say how much or how little currency we shall have in circu- 
lation. To accomplish this they will destroy silver as 
money, and withdraw the government notes from circulation, 
two things which that party has sworn, since 1866, it would 
do, and then we will have no money in circulation except 
gold and national bank notes, the same as it is in England. 
The old Federal party insisted upon a high protective tariff • 



38 CLE VE LAND'S AD3IINISTEA TION, 

because it was anciently English, and the Republican party- 
insists upon following in the footsteps of its old British 
ancestor, regardless of the direful consequences which his- 
tory tells us it has universally brought down upon the 
masses of many nations of people. A high tariff is that 
kind of taxation which despots universally resort to in order 
to maintain their power. In England, a high protective 
tariff, prior to 1846, and royal gifts to favored individuals, 
and subsidies to powerful corporations, resulted in creating 
a wealthy aristocracy on the one hand, consisting of a few 
who own all the lands in the United Kingdom, and on the 
other hand a vast multitude of poor laborers. But the gifts 
and subsidies conferred upon the aristocracy and nobility of 
England is insignificant when compared with the land 
grants and money subsidies which the Republican party, in 
the short space of tAventy-f our years, conferred upon wealthy 
individuals, companies and corporations in this country. In 
fact. Republicans did more in twenty-four years of their 
rule to create a British aristocracy here on American soil, 
than was accomplished in a century in England, prior to 
1846. 

And still the Republicans denounced the Mills bill as 
British, and told the Irish- American voter that England 
ruined the industries of Ireland with free-trade, when 
every intelligent Irishman ought to know that, years ago, 
England ruined the industries of Ireland not only by levy- 
ing a heavy tariff tax upon all manufactured commodities 
imported into England from Ireland, but laid a similar tax 
upon all manufactured articles shipped from Ireland to 
other markets of the world. And they are continually 
asserting that free-trade prevails in England. They know 
what they say is false, for England to-day collects more duties 
on imports than we do, per capita. In 1887, with a popula- 
tion of 30,000,000, she collected $127,000,000 as tariff duty 
on imports, while we, with a population of 60,000,000 
people, collected a little more than 1217,000,000. It does 



CLE VELANPS ADMINISTRA TION. 41 

li'^t require much of a calculation^ to discover that what 
we have stated is the truth, but the highest duties in Eng- 
land are levied upon luxuries, instead of necessities. 

The fact is, the Democratic party is, and always has 
been, the anti-British party. It was Thomas Jefferson, the 
founder of the Democratic party, who penned the Declara- 
tion of Independence, wherein was defined the rights of 
man more perfectly than they had ever been defined before. 
It was the party of Jefferson, Madison, Monroe and Jack- 
son which excluded British court ceremonies from the 
White House, and placed the machinery of our government 
in operation in true American style. It was through the 
influence of this party that powerful monopolies were kept 
in check, and an equitable distribution of property secured 
to the masses, and which was never successfully overcome 
until the Republican party came to the assistance of 
monopolies. Under those Democratic administrations the 
public domain was more than quadrupled, and the honor 
and integrity of the nation revindicated in the war of 
1812 with England. But it was in the New England 
states, where the old British Federal ideas prevailed, and 
where high British protection to capital is taught, that 
resolutions were passed forbidding the United States 
authorities from marching troops over the soil for the pur- 
pose of resisting British bayonets in 1812, and who threat- 
ened to secede if their resolutions were not heeded. 

In 1846 England, through the influence of her most wise 
and liberal statesmen, changed her tariff laws by removing 
the tariff from grain and raw materials. They saw the 
necessity for doing something, for they had carried on a high 
protective system, as already stated, until the great mass of 
the people were pauperized. The light began to dawn upon 
them that by making raw materials free they could buy 
far more materials with the same money, manufacture more 
goods, employ more laborers and supply greater markets, 
and that the laborer would be benefited by, not only secur- 



42 CLEVELAND'S ADMINISTEATION. 

ing more steady employment^ but his wages would be higher 
and would purchase far more of the necessaries of life. Be- 
fore England changed her tariff on raw materials, and even 
after, between 1846 and 1860, while we had a low tariff, 
averaging not over 21 per cent., we were successfully 
competing with England in the trade of the world ; and 
so prosperous was the nation during this period of four- 
teen years that its wealth more than trebled, even Blaine, 
in his '^'^ Twenty Years in Congress," corroborates this when 
he says : " The tariff of 1846 was yielding abundant reve- 
nue, and the business of the country was in a flourishing 
condition." But in the early part of the war of the rebel- 
lion the Eepublican party adopted a high protective tariff 
for war purposes, which they would forever retain for the 
benefit of a few mill barons ; and what has been the result ? 
The consequence is that England monopolizes the trade of 
the world so far as manufactured articles are concerned. 
Wages there have since constantly increased, and the mass 
of the people find steady employment ; in the meantime, 
our foreign trade has vanished, so far as manufactured com- 
modities are concerned, and an era of strikes, riots and 
labor troubles in our protected districts has been brought 
about, which was never known before. Here, right under 
our noses, lie the territories of Mexico, Cuba, West India 
Islands and the South American states, whose trade, by all 
the laws of commerce, we should monopolize and control, 
but to which we sold in 1880 only the pitiful sum of a little 
more than $3,000,000 worth of cotton fabrics, while Eng- 
land exported to those countries over $52,000,000 worth of 
the same kind of commodities. And what is still a far worse 
picture, England, in 1880, sold over 1775,000,000 worth of 
textile goods alone, while our total exportation for the same 
year, of the same kind of goods, amounted to less then 
$25,000,000. 

Then, in 1854, England changed her navigation laws so 
that Englishmen could buy or build ships wherever they 



CLE VELAND'S ABMINISTBA TION. 43 

pleased. And we afterward changed our navigation laws, 
so that if an American buys or builds a ship in any foreign 
land, and sails into an American port flying the stars and 
stripes, his vessel is immediately confiscated ; while, in the 
meantime, all foreign ships are respected and protected. 
This, together with a high tariff on ship-building materials, 
has resulted in driving our merchant marine from the seas. 
Between 1846 and 1850, we were, not only building ships 
for ourselves, but for foreigners, and our ships were con- 
sidered the best, and were the fastest sailers. In 1850, 76 
per cent, of our commerce was carried in American vessels, 
but now it has dwindled down to less than 13 per cent. In 
1850, nobody thought of going to Europe without taking 
passage in an American ship. Now the passage must be 
made in a foreign vessel. Even the great Republican leader, 
Blaine, in going to and returning from Europe in 1888, 
when he passed poor Ireland by and wined and dined with 
English lords and aristocrats, was compelled to take passage 
in a foreign ship. 

This supremacy in foreign trade, in manufactured com- 
modities, and in merchant marine now enjoyed by England, 
is owing entirely to our present abominable tariff laws, and 
English supremacy will continue so long as those laws are 
allowed to stand upon our statute books. This is well 
understood by English statesmen. Gladstone, the most 
enlightened and liberal of Englishmen, said in 1881 : 

I will say this, that as long as America adheres to the protective system 
your commercial supremacy is secure. Nothing in the world can wi-cst it 
from you while America continues to fetter her own strong arms and hands, 
and with these fettered arms is content to compete with you who are free 
in neutral markets. As long as America follows the doctrine now known as 
tariff trade you are perfectly safe, and you need not allow, any of you, even 
your lightest slumbers to be disturbed by the fear that America will take 
from you your commercial supremacy. 

It is hard to discover why there should be any difference 
of opinion upon the tariff question, except that the Repub- 
licans are determined not to legislate, even once, in behalf 



44 CLEVELAND'S ADMtNlSTHATlON. 

of the people, nor allow others to do so, for the only effort 
which they made in Congress during Cleveland's adminis- 
tration was to forestall every attempt made by Democrats 
to better the condition of the masses. 

They tell the laboring men that a high protective tariff 
always insures high wages. They know what they say is 
false. 

They know that the history of the world proves the con- 
trary. Italy maintains the highest protective tariff of any 
country in Europe, but wages are lower there than in any 
other part of Europe. A less tariff is maintained in Ger- 
many and in France, but wages are higher there than in Italy. 
England maintains a less per cent, of tariff tax on the 
necessaries of life than any other nation of Europe, but 
wages are there the highest. China has always been sur- 
rounded by the highest tariff wall known to the world, but 
wages are lower there than anywhere else. 

They also tell us that wages are higher here than in Eng- 
land, and that our high protective tariff is the cause of it. 
They know that this is as false as false can be ; for, long 
before the revolution, and even up to 1846, England main- 
tained a much higher tariff tax than we ever did, during 
all of which time wages were higher here than in England. 
Before the revolution we had no national tariff tax, but 
wages were then higher here, in proportion, than they are 
now higher than they are in England. As authority for 
what we have asserted, we quote what an English writer, 
Adam Smith, said in 1773 : 

The wages of labor are much higher in North America than in any part of 
England. In the province of New York common laborers earn 3 shillings and 
6 pence currency, equal to 2 shillings sterling, a day ; ship carpenters, 10 shil- 
lings and 6 pence currency, with a pint of rum worth 6 pence sterling, equal 
in all to G shillings and 6 pence sterling ; house carpenters and bricklayers, 8 
shillings currency ; journeymen tailors, 5 shillings currency. These prices are 
all above the London price, and wages are said to be as high in the other colo- 
nies as in New York. The price of provision is everywhere in North America 
much more than in England. If the money price of labor, therefore, be higher 
than it is anywhere in the mother country, its real price — the real command 



CLE VELANVS ADMINlSTRA TtON. 45 

of tte necessaries and conveniences of life which it conveys to the hiborers — 
must be higher in a still greater proportion. 

Labor is there so well rewarded that a numerous family of children, instead 
of being a burden, is a source of opulence and prosperity to the parents. The 
labor of each child, before it can leave their house, is counted to be worth a 
hundred pounds clear gain to them. A young widow with four or five chil- 
dren, who, among the middling or inferior classes of Europe, would have so 
little chance for a second husband, is here quoted as a sort of fortune. 

While the history of the world shows that, in those 
countries where the highest tariff is maintained, wages have 
reached the lowest point, it must not be forgotten that the 
higher wages in this country have been owing to other 
causes than the tariff. Land has always been cheap in this 
country, and easy to obtain, thus giving labor an oppor- 
tunity to employ itself. This has operated to employ surplus 
labor and maintain wages, tariff or no tariff. But when 
the time arrives when our lands become fully occupied, and 
hundreds of millions of acres have gone into the hands of 
wealthy capitalists, where it is now rapidly passing, the 
great opportunity of labor to employ itself will have passed 
away forever, and the effect of high protective tariff will 
reach the laboring classes, and crush them to the earth, as 
it has ever done before in those nations which have 
long adhered to it. 

A high protective tariff ought to result in better wages to 
working men, but it never has, and it never will, for it only 
permits a sufficient number of factories to exist to supply 
our own people with their commodities, thus creating too 
great a competition among those who have only labor to 
sell. The mill men will employ the cheapest labor, and 
they never have, nor ever will be willing to divide their 
profits with their workmen. The mill men want the earth, 
and they will only spend a share of their extra profits for 
the purpose of propagating their doctrines, and to elect 
their agents to Congress, that laws may be enacted in their 
interests. Give them the earth and they will pay their 
laborers still less than they do now, and use their extra 



46 CLEVELAND'S ADMINISTRATION, 

profits as an engine of oppression, that their laborers may 
sooner be reduced to a state of degradation equal to that 
found in Italy or China. 

It has been asserted by some prominent Kepublioans that 
the tariff is not a tax, and, strange it is, many people seem 
to believe it. 

Concisely stated, a tariff is a tax whicli our government levies on 
merchandise produced in other countries and hrought here for sale. Before it 
can he disposed of the party who imports it must pay into the treasury of the 
United States the taiiff which the law imposes, and then, in order to save 
himself from loss, he must sell it for enough to get back the original cost in 
the foreign country and the tariff paid on it here. To illustrate, let us suppose 
an article that costs $100 in a foreign country is imported, the tariff on which 
is 50 per cent, of its value. The importer first pays $100 for the article, and 
then $50 to our government for the tariff. The article has therefore cost him 
$150, for which he must sell it to get back first cost, and if he sells it to a 
consumer he calculates the cost at $150, adds to this the expense of importing 
it and his per cent, of profit, and the consumer pays the aggregate of all these 
sums, and thus he pays in the end the tax. 

Now, by this transaction, the government collects $50, which goes into 
the treasury and helps to defray its expenses, and no one class is directly 
benefited by it more than another, and none would be indirectly if everything 
of the same kind that we used was imported. But if we have factories in this 
country that manufacture articles of the same kind I have supposed, and offer 
them for sale in the same markets where the imported article is sold, it is 
plain that if the tariff was taken off that article it would be soid upon the 
basis of an original cost of $100 instead of $150, and the home manufacturer 
would have to sell his goods for a like price, but inasmuch as the importer has 
been compelled to add to the price of the goods he offers for sale 50 per cent, 
of their original cost in another country, which our tariff la vrs exact, it is easy 
to see that the home manufacturer can charge for his goods a sum equal to the 
cost of the imported goods and the tariff combined, or 50 per cent, more than 
the foreign manufacturer is able to get for his ; and this difference in price in 
favor of the home manufacturer is what our Republican friends call protection 
of American industries. 

It is also plain that the tax collected on the imported articles goes into the 
treasury, but that which is collected on home manufactured commodities, by 
the grace of combines and trusts, goes directly into the pockets of the manu- 
facturers. 

The people not only pay the tariff tax, but, under our 
present tariff laws, they pay a tax which is outrageously 
unjust. They have not only paid annually, during recent 
years, the $217,000,000 or more on the purchase of goods 



CLE VELANUS ADMINISTRA TION. 47 

imported^ which went into the treasury, but, in addition 
thereto, over $700,000,000 upon the purchase of goods 
manufactured here at home, the latter amount going di- 
rectly into the pockets of the factory kings. If this 
amount all went into the government treasury, and was 
there needed to defray government expenses, it might 
have the semblance of legitimate taxation, although nine- 
tenths of it is paid by the poor classes of people. But in- 
stead of this, three-fourths of it goes directly into the 
pockets of the mill men. 

This high tariff tax is outrageously unjust, for other 
reasons. It is a tax which is placed the highest upon those 
articles that are of general use, and which the poor, and 
people of moderate means, must purchase. While, prior to 
1890, the tariff tax averaged 47 per cent., still the average 
tax upon all woolen, mixed cotton and wool, iron and scores 
of other commodities which are the most needed, was at 
least 75 per cent. Were the tariff tax paid according to 
the amount of property owned by each individual, in 
accordance with that fundamental principle of our repub- 
lican form of government that taxation should be equal, 
not so much fault could be found. But such is not the 
case with our tariff laws. Instead of this, it is paid accord- 
ing to the amount consumed, and consequently the average 
poor man pays more of such tax than the millionaire, 
because he consumes more of the goods upon which the 
tariff tax is maintained the highest. Thus powerful com- 
panies and wealthy individuals, who are already too rich, 
are subsidized by a law which compels the poor and the 
middle classes to pay over to them annually the sum of 
$700,000,000 or more. During the past twenty-five years 
the people of this nation have paid more than $20,000,- 
000,000 of tariff tax. Did it ever occur to the laboring 
men and producers how much better off they would have 
been had this vast amount of money been retained by 
them, and been invested in business ? Here we have an 



48 CLEVELAND'S ADMINISTRATION. 

amount greater than one-fourth of the vahie of all the 
property in the nation, and which has been greatly 
increased by the rapacious capitalists who have received it 
without price. But the direful consequences which must 
necessarily follow such a blood-sucking process are surely 
coming home to the agriculturists of the country, for the 
vast amount of money which they have paid in the shape 
of tariff tax is coming back to them — not as a gracious 
gift, as when they parted with it, but in the shape of mort- 
gages on their farms, to such an extent that one is perfectly 
astounded when reference is made to the figures. The 
records show that the seven states of Ohio, Indiana, 
Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa and Kansas are blank- 
eted with mortgages to the extent of more than $3,000,- 
000,000, a circumstance which is not a little appalling to 
the ordinary observer. Had we the record showing the 
amount of mortgage debt covering the balance of the states, 
it would show that the farmers of the West have parted 
with all their profits in paying the tariff and other taxes, 
and that their farms are mortgaged to the full extent of 
the swindle. The result ought to open the eyes of the 
farmers and laborers of the West to the fact that an indi- 
rect tax which forces them to pay from 40 to 80 per cent. 
for all the necessaries of life more than they are worth, 
comes home to them rather directly after all. Think for 
one moment what the result would be were this tariff tax 
exacted from them at the time they make the purchases by 
a tax collector standing at the door. It is plain to all that, 
were this the case, there would be such a revolt as would 
render the collection of such a tax impossible. . 

The census returns shows the astonishing fact that the 
mortgages on land alone in the State of Kansas, exclusive 
of chattels, amount to over 80 per cent, of the assessed 
value of all the property, real and personal, railroads alone 
excepted. The assessed valuation of real and personal 
property in that state appears to be 1290,593,000, and the 



CLE VELAND'S ABMINISTBA TION. 49 

mortgages on land alone amount to 1235,485,000. The 
amount of indebtedness of the farmers, mechanics and 
laborers of that state in the shape of chattel-mortgages, 
delinquent taxes and store bills will undoubtedly exceed 
$100,000,000 more. The Republican leaders are asserting 
that the debts of that state could be paid off with a single 
yearns crop. While we know that such statements are far 
from the truth, it seems strange to some people why they 
have not paid off this indebtedness before. The sum total 
of several years^ crops prior to 1890, was certainly worth 
enough to have paid those mortgages, together with the 
interest thereon, amounting to $23,247,000 annually. Why 
did not those crops pay this indebtedness ? The answer is 
that it is very doubtful whether the farmers of that state 
received a price for their grain sufficient to pay for the cost 
of raising it, and if they received more than its cost, the 
surplus was not sufficient to pay for the tariff-taxed articles 
which every farmer must be supplied with from one yearns 
end to another. Between 1880 and 1890 Kansas was 
blessed with many abundant crops, but instead of paying 
off her indebtedness she has steadily gone deeper in 
debt. Kansas is not alone in this list of tax-ridden states: 
Iowa, Illinois and other Western states are in the same 
boat, and for the same reasons. 

With enormous crops they were shut out of market ; forbidden to sell to 
Europe in exchange for European products. Compelled to pay high-tariff 
prices to iS'ew England for their supplies, the Western farming states had 
their crop surplus shut up in this market so that New England could buy 
cheap while it sold dear. Kansas, with enormous wealth in the garnered prod- 
ucts of its soil, was brought near to bankruptcy. Europe would take corn in 
exchange for goods, iSTew England would not. It had all the Kansas corn it 
wanted, and at its own prices. It demanded cash or nothing, and having corn 
surplus, but no cash surplus, Kansas could do nothing, except bum com for 
fuel and go deeper in debt to New England. The prosperity of abundant 
harvests was made a curse to it by the Massachusetts tariff, and at the same 
time Massachusetts kept calling it for interest on mortgages. All it could do 
was to go deeper in debt and hope for a famine somewhere to give its prod- 
ucts something of the value taken from them by Northeastern legislation. 

When the West has complained and stated the facts, the Kepublican 



50 CLEVELAND'S ADMINISTRATION, 

plutocrats have accused it of lying and dishonesty. They have assumed that 
every "Western man who dares speak for the "West is a repudiator and a cheat. 
Occasionally they vary this with the assurance that the immense debt their 
laws have imposed on the "West — the debt on which they are drawing enor- 
mous usury — is '-an evidence of prosperity." 

Are the people of the West foolish enough to be so deceived, cowardly 
enough to be so intimidated? If they are not they have their remedy. 

This vast sum paid as tariff tax was paid by all tlie con- 
sumers of the country, but the burden rests far the most 
heavily upon those engaged in the different kinds of indus- 
tries, composed of about 18,000,000 of our population. Of 
this number about 9,000,000 are employed in agriculture. 
Now is it possible for one of this vast number of farmers to 
give one good reason why he should vote for and sustain 
a high protective tariff on the necessaries of life? This class 
constitutes one-half of all those engaged in the different 
industries, and it is certain that they receive nothing in 
return as a compensation for the money they pay as tariff 
tax. Only think of the farmer paying 93 per cent, upon 
common sized window glass ; on common woolen cloth cost- 
ing 61 cents per pound, 92 per cent.; woolen manufactures 
not costing over 80 cents per pound abroad, 91 per cent. ; 
bleached cotton cloth costing 5 cents per square yard, 70 
per cent. ; colored cotton cloth costing 6 cents per square 
yard, 77 per cent.; sheet-iron, from 74 to 78 per cent.; 
woolen blankets costing 26 cents per pound, 73 per cent. ; 
woolen cloaks, 72 per cent. ; flannels, 71 per cent. ; cast-iron 
pipe of every description, over 60 per cent.; zinc, 67 per 
cent. ; common cotton cloth costing 8 cents or less a square 
yard, 57 per cent.; white crockery, 55 per cent.; bar iron, 
51 per cent.; bar steel, 43 to 52 per cent.; nuts and wash- 
ers, 57 per cent.; rivets and bolts, 57 per cent.; ready-made 
clothing, 54 per cent. ; boots, shoes and harness, 25 per cent. ; 
lumber, 20 per cent. These were the rates before the in- 
crease by the McKinley bill, which will be referred to here- 
after. 

It is impossible here to give an extended list of those 



CLE VELAND'S ADMINISTBA TION. 51 

articles of necessity upon which the tax has been so long so 
enormously high, but some idea of its enormity and injus- 
tice can be seen from these figures. Does such a tax enable 
the farmer to pay better wages to his laborers, or enable 
him to retain a proper proportion of the profits of his own 
labor and productions ? It is plain that the agriculturalist 
is not benefited by a tariff on necessaries, but is injured to 
the extent of the amount demanded of him as such. So far 
as his profits are concerned, he needs no protection, as he 
cannot be interfered with by the importation of products of 
the class produced by him, but he must look to a foreign 
market for a sale of the greater portion of his surplus pro- 
duction. 

But the farmer is told that the operation of the tariff 
gives him a better home market for his productions. This 
is a fallacy of the worst sort, for every sane farmer cannot 
help understanding that his productions generally can only 
be consumed at home in proportion to the number of our 
population. The farmer cannot help understanding that a 
high tariff tax, of which his class pays at least one-half, 
enables the manufacturer, through the medium of trusts, 
to monopolize the home market, and charge what he pleases 
for his productions ; while the payment of such tariff tax 
does not assist the farmer in finding a better home market 
for his productions. The fact is it works directly opposite 
to what protectionists represent ; for, after thirty years of 
high protection it has become far more difficult than it was 
before the war for the farmer to successfully dispose of his 
surplus produce at a fair price. He finds that a high tariff 
creates monopoly, and a high market from whence he must 
purchase a majority of the necessaries of life, and a woeful 
cheap market at home when he desires to sell his produce. 
He finds that a great agricultural country such as ours, 
must necessarily produce far more than it can consume, and 
that a foreign market should be cultivated for his surplus 
productions. He finds that the constant tendency of a high 



52 CLEVELAND'S ADMINISTRATION, 

protective tariff is to destroy our commercial intercourse 
with foreign nations, and to shut off the avenues to healthy 
foreign markets for agricultural products. He understands, 
or should at least comprehend, the fact, that, the wealth of 
the nation depends more upon the exportation of agricultural 
products than upon any other one thing. Had it not been 
for the exportation annually, during the past ten years, of 
from $500,000,000 to $600,000,000 of the products of the 
farmers, the nation would now have been bankrupt. Trade 
between nations is natural, and a country surrounded by a 
Chinese wall of protection for the benefit of a few, whd 
amass fortunes by robbing the masses, will ruin our agricult- 
urists in the not far-distant future. 

Then we have about 5,000,000 engaged in professional 
employment, and as domestic servants and laborers. How 
does a high protective tariff benefit any of these ? Is it any 
benefit to the common laborer to pay $18 for a suit of 
clothes worth only $10, or any consolation to the servant 
girl that she must pay for her wearing apparel 75 per cent, 
more than it is worth ? 

Then we have in the neighborhood of 4,000.000 engaged 
as carpenters and joiners, milliners, - dressmakers, seam- 
stresses, blacksmiths, tailors, masons, butchers, bakers, 
plasterers, miners, etc. What benefit do any of these de- 
rive from a high protective tariff upon the necessaries of 
life except the privilege of being compelled to pay double 
what they are worth ? 

Take the case of the carpenter and joiner. We will say 
that he is employed by the day. Is it possible that his em- 
ployer can afford to pay him better wages, and give him 
more employment, when the materials entering into the 
construction of his building costs from 20 to 80 per 
cent, more than they are worth ? On the one hand a high 
protective tariff lessens the ability of the employer to pay 
wages or extend his operations ; while on the other hand, 
the tariff' tax exacts from the carpenter from 50 to 80 



CLEVELAND'S ADMINISTRATION. 53 

per cent, more for the necessaries of life then they are 
worthy and the laborer who rents the house which the car- 
penter builds must pay the tariff tax which the owner paid 
on the materials which entered into its construction. 

It is the same way with the tailor. If he is com- 
pelled to pay $18 for the cloth to manufacture into a 
suit of clothes, when it should cost him only $10, his 
chances for wages are diminished ; for the person ordering 
the suit made could afford to pay better wages could the 
cloth be purchased for its actual worth ; and the tailor, in the 
absence of a high tariff, could purchase more of the neces- 
saries of life with the wages received. Thus it is plain 
that our high protective tariff does not protect the indus- 
trial classes, who have the least money to purchase with, 
but who must necessarily pay nearly all the tariff tax. 

We have now to speak of one other class of laborers who 
are employed in the great protected establishments, and for 
whose benefit it is claimed a high protective tariff on the 
necessaries of life should be maintained. This class con- 
sists of something over one million, and it is said that a 
high protective tariff is necessary to protect them against 
the pauper labor of England or Europe. Did it ever occur 
to laboring men that they now have to compete against the 
paupers themselves, and on American soil ? It seems that 
a high war tariff does not prevent competition with paupers, 
but rather encourages it. ^' The strongest Eepublican fac- 
tories, the strongest and largest protected industries of this 
country, who cry aloud until they become hoarse when this 
tariff question is up, go to Italy, Hungary and China, and 
contract with laborers to come here by the ship load and 
place them in their factories and in their mines on their 
arrival. With strange inconsistency they insist on a pro- 
tective high-priced home market to sell their goods, and 
upon the right to hire the pauper laborers of Europe or 
China at whatever free market they see fit to trade in." 

By this means ship load after ship load of laborers arQ 



54 CLEVELAND'S ADMINISTRATION. 

brought here because their passage is paid, who otherwise 
would never have reached our shores, and who find, after 
they have commenced work, that they cannot save sufficient 
from the low wages which they contracted to receive to ever 
pay their passage back where they came from, or to live here 
on such wages as comfortable as they did in their own 
land. During the last quarter century we have maintained 
the highest tariff ever known in this country, and how have 
the classes employed in our protected concerns thrived under 
its influence ? Go into the factories of New England and 
the iron mills and mines of Pennsylvania, and you will 
there find laborers faring far worse than any other class of 
laborers in the land. 'Mn those regions, strikes, riots and 
labor troubles have abounded during the past thirty years. 
In the iron and coal mines of Pennsylvania can be seen 
hundreds of Hungarians and Italians, consisting of men, 
women and children, working half nude for a mere pittance, 
some of whom have been known to eat the flesh of mules 
that died in the service in order to maintain their existence. ^^ 
This is the kind of protection our high protective tariff tax 
gives the common laborer. It is a Republican fraud and 
falsehood. It is only for the benefit of the bosses, and 
simply increases their power to starve their laborers and 
impoverish the masses. 

It is a notorious fact that wages are lower in the pro- 
tected districts than anywhere else. According to a table 
given by William Williams, a Republican stump-speaker 
imported into California from Indiana, in 1888, the average 
wages paid to hands working in all clothing, iron and steel, 
woolen, cotton, boots and shoes, and silk factories in the 
United States, is only $5.99 per week, making an aver- 
age of 85 4-7 cents per day for the 'support of each 
family of three. The following table is taken from the 
speech of Mr. Williams, delivered in Los Angeles, California, 
August 21st, 1888, so far as the number of wageworkers 
are concerned, and the amount of wages paid in 1880. The 



CLEVELAND'S ADMINISTRATION. 55 

weekly and daily wages have been carried out, showing that 
what we state is correct. 

Clothing manufactories, hands employed, 186,000; wages 
paid annually, $52,000,000 ; per week, $5.36. 

Iron and steel, hands employed, 159,052; wages paid 
annually, $62,000,000; per week, $7.61. 

Woolen manufactories, hands employed, 105,000 ; wages 
paid, $30,000,000; per week, $5.49. 

Cotton manufactories, hands employed, 185,472; wages 
paid, $45,000,000; per week, $4.67. 

Boots and shoes, hands employed, 133,810; wages paid, 
$50,000,000 ; per week, $7.20. 

Silk manufactories, hands employed, 31,337; wages paid, 
$9,000,000; per week, $5.50. 

This is a terrible showing of wages under a high protect- 
'ive tariff. If these figures are true, and we have no reason 
to doubt their correctness, as we have compared them with 
the official reports, the English laborer has the advantage 
of the American, for the average wages of the Englishman 
in such concerns is 84 cents per day, and will purchase in 
England 40 per cent, more of the necessaries of life than 
the American laborer can purchase with the same amount. 
AVhat, then, becomes of all this hue and cry about English 
pauper labor ? Why do not Englishmen flood our protected 
districts with their labor, if wages are so much higher here ? 
The fact is, they would if there was a word of truth in what 
political demagogues say concerning the difference between 
the wages here and in England, for Englishmen can, if they 
so desire, come here and pay their own passage. 

This same stump-speaker undertook to prove that labor- 
ers working in the factories and mills mentioned by him 
were the wealthiest set of people in the country by stating 
that there was deposited in the savings banks by the people 
of the United States $1,200,000,000; but he forgot to say 
that this sum of money was deposited by those poor labor- 
ers. Such an amount may be deposited in savings banks^ 



56 CLE VELANUS ABMINISTBA TION. 

but it is by people who have money, and not by those who 
have only 85-f(y cents per day to support each family. 

Mr. Williams also stated that the tariff had not been 
touched on sugar or rice by the Mills bill, and appealed to 
the prejudices of his audience by stating, as a reason, that 
those articles were produced in the Democratic South. 
Why he made such a statement, in the face of the fact that 
the reduction of the tax on sugar, by the terms of the Mills 
bill, exceeded $11,000,000, and the reduction on rice was 
in the same proportion, is more than mortal man can con- 
ceive, except that he presumed upon the ignorance or 
impudence of his hearers for an indorsement of whatever 
he might say, regardless of the truth. 

Thousands of workmen are, at every general election, 
deluded into voting for high protection, because of the 
name simply, when an examination of the records will show 
that, while they are voting to fill the pockets of their 
employers, those very employers have been constantly 
scheming to lower their wages and to displace them with 
pauper contract labor. During the six years prior to 1888 
there were over 1,607 lockouts in protected districts. 
Those lockouts were ordered by the manufacturers and 
monopolists, who are extracting hundreds of millions annu- 
ally from the pockets of the people, under the pretense 
that it is needed to pay high wages to their men, but who, 
under its influence, turn out their workmen to enforce a 
reduction of wages or make them work longer hours, or 
both. During the period mentioned, over 500,000 Ameri- 
can laborers were forced out of employment, a majority of 
whose places were afterward filled with cheap contract 
labor brought from foreign lands. 

And it was asserted that if our tariif was reduced as pro- 
posed by the Mills bill, the country would be flooded with 
the pauper goods of Europe, and our manufacturing indus- 
tries be destroyed. This is an empty assertion made by 
political tricksters and demagogues to be repeated by par- 



CLEVELAND'S ABMlNlSTBATtON. 57 

rots and fools. It has no foundation, and high protection- 
ists know it. The fallacy of such statements is conclu- 
sively proven by a reference to our experience during colo- 
nial days, and to different periods of our history since. 
Before the revolution, when England had a high protective 
tariff, and we had none at all, we were sending iron and 
other manufactured commodities to England and nearly all 
parts of the world, and our manufacturing industries were 
much greater in proportion to our population and develop- 
ment. To be sure they have increased since we adopted 
the old English tariff system, but only as the necessities of 
our own people demanded their commodities. This alone 
ought to be sufficient to convince any rational being that a 
high protective tariff has injured instead of benefited our 
manufactories. 

The exportation of our manufactured products continued 
from 1789 to 1824, when it was retarded by a high tariff tax 
which averaged 37 per cent. In 1828 the tariff was raised 
to 43 per cent, average, the highest we ever had prior to 
our present war tariff, and for a time the exportation of our 
products and commodities absolutely ceased. This tariff 
had so depressing an effect upon the laboring and producing 
classes that Henry Clay, who is said to be the great founder 
of protective tariff, brought forward a bill which was passed, 
and provided that the tariff should be reduced by a per cent, 
each year during ten years, so that it would be 20 per cent, 
average, and should remain afterward at that rate. Under 
the effects of this tariff, as it became reduced year after 
year, the exportation of manufactured commodities and 
other products revived, labor in the mills was better em- 
ployed and received higher wages. But in 1840, the Whig 
party succeeded in electing Harrison president, and the 
manufacturing interests besieged Congress and secured the 
passage of the 35 per cent, average tariff law of 1842. In 
passing this law the Whig party entirely disregarded their 
solemn pledge to stand by the compromise bill of 1832. 



58 CLEVELAND'S ABMINISmATtON. 

The depressing effect of the tariff of 1842 upon all industries 
was so perceptibly felt by the masses, that Polk and Dallas 
were elected in 1844, and the 23 per cent, tariff law of 1846 
was passed. From the passage and maintenance of this 
tariff law to 1860 dates our golden period. During that 
period every industry flourished. We were successfully 
competing with England in our commerce, which was car- 
ried to all parts of the world in our own ships. We find,- 
from the statistics contained in Blaine^s book, that our 
tonnage upon the ocean in 1850 was 1,440,000 tons and 
2,380,000 tons in 1860. In 1856 the tonnage of England 
was 935,000 tons, but it now amounts to 10,000,000 tons, 
which is more than ten times greater than ours was in 1888. 
It cannot, then, he disputed that, since the adoption of the 
Federal constitution, our factories have prospered better 
and exported more goods when the tariff was the lowest 
upon all necessaries and raw materials, which was the case 
between 1846 and 1860. During this period our merchant 
marine became great, but it is now the boast of the 
Republican party that it has been, through the benign 
influence of high protective tariff, successfully wiped out of 
existence. 

The object of the passage of the Mills bill was to give to 
American laborers free raw materials, and a reduction of 
tariff tax on the articles manufactured from such materials 
in the same proportion. How can this result in giving Eng- 
lish manufacturers an advantage over our factory men ? 
Cheap goods the people want, and the object of the Mills 
bill was to enable our mill men to manufacture the cheap 
goods, which is the very thing that England fears the most. 
Under oar present tariff laws England has the supremac}^ 
so far as trade in manufactured goods is concerned, and 
Gladstone and other Liberal English statesmen have told 
their countrymen that they need have no fears of losing 
their supremacy so long as America has no more sense than 
to cut her own throat by maintaining her present tariff laws. 



CLE VELANB'S ADMINISTBA TlON. 59 

In 1846 English factory men came to their senses^ and 
since that time have carefully studied how to cheapen their 
products, that they might be able to sell greater quantities 
in foreign markets, thus giving an opportunity for a con- 
stant increase in the number of manufacturing establish- 
ments and employment to the people, while the mill men 
of the United States have labored equally as hard to increase 
the cost of their products, which they have successfully done, 
by constantly increasing the cost of raw materials. While 
England sells her one billion or more of manufactured goods 
wherever she can obtain the highest prices, we consume, 
practically, all we manufacture. Thus, a few are living and 
amassing fortunes on the others. The consequence is that 
the cost of living here is absorbing all the profits of the 
masses, while England monopolizes the trade of the world. 
This she is able to do by buying her raw materials free of 
tariff tax, while our goods are too high to export on 
account of the tax on such materials. How is it possible 
that our factories can prosper and multiply beyond our own 
needs, or the nation gather any wealth from abroad under 
such circumstances ? Such a state of things can bring 
about but one result, and that is the enrichment of a few 
and the empoverishment of the many. 

Reduce the tariff upon raw materials, and the consumer 
will be benefited to the extent of the reduction, and manu- 
facturing interests will be benefited, for they will be able 
to purchase far more materials with the same money, 
manufacture more goods, employ more labor, and supply a 
greater market. We would then, not only furnish cheap 
goods for own people, but would take a hand with England 
in supplying foreign nations with what they need. 

That we would not be flooded with cheap foreign goods 
can again be shown from the operation of a portion of our 
tariff laws known as the *^ drawback.'^ This is a nice little 
scheme by which certain manufacturers are paid a bounty 
that they may be able to sell their commodities to foreigners 



60 CLEVELAND'S ALMINISTBATION, 

for less than they can be purchased for by our own citizens. 
Under the law, prior to the passage of the McKinley bill, 
those commodities consisted of axes, bags, band and bar 
iron, iron chains, cordage, gunpowder, guns and everything 
pertaining thereto, hatchets, hoop iron, nails, lanterns, lead 
pipe, almost everything made of iron, sugar, syrup, wire, 
and a host of other articles. It was done in this wise : The 
articles manufactured were required to be made wholly or 
partially of imported raw materials upon which the duty 
had been paid. Then, when the manufacturer was ready 
and shipped his goods so manufactured to some foreign 
market, 90 per cent, of the duties paid on the importation 
of the raw materials from which the goods were manufact- 
ured was taken from the treasury and paid over to the 
manufacturers. Thereby the manufacturer was able to ex- 
port his commodities and sell his goods in foreign markets ; 
while our own citizens, in purchasing the same articles, 
were compelled to pay the entire amount of the tax upon 
the raw materials. If this was not robbery, then some 
high protectionist should explain what it looks like. It is 
evident to every sane person that, if the manufacturer can 
export and sell his commodities in foreign markets with the 
tariff only partially removed from the raw materials, he 
could and would be able to sell unlimited amounts of such 
commodities in foreign markets were the tax on raw 
materials entirely removed, and our own consumers be 
entirely free from the payment of the tariff tax on such 
raw materials. Further on, the reader will find that the 
drawback has been increased to 99 per cent, by the 
McKinley bill, thus enabling the manufacturer to sell his 
commodities still cheaper to foreigners, besides having 
been extended to all classes of goods. 

It must not be forgotten that, in this lovely little scheme 
called the drawback, the manufacturer who imports for- 
eign raw materials is compelled, by law, to export his man- 
ufactured products therefrom, and is not permitted to sell 



CLE VE LAND'S ADMINISTUA TION. 61 

such commodities freed from the tariff tax to our own peo- 
ple, who ought, in all conscience, to be treated by our leg- 
islators as liberally as they treat people living in foreign 
lands. You have often heard that certain articles manu- 
factured in this country can be purchased in Europe for 
much less than they can be purchased for here. This is 
the result of the drawback system maintained by the wis- 
dom and liberality of our capitalistic statesmen. If our 
manufacturers can compete on the soil of Europe with 
European manufacturers by having the right to purchase 
the raw materials free of charge in the shape of a tariff tax, 
why ought not our own citizens to be permitted to pur- 
chase the same commodities for the same price ? 

A high protective tariff is one which is intended to abso- 
lutely shut off outside competition in manufactured fabrics, 
but when the tax on raw materials can be so reduced as to 
enable our manufacturers to compete with other countries 
in the markets of the world in the sale of their goods, 
after retaining a moderate tariff on manufactured articles, 
the desired end is accomplished, and the organization of 
trusts, which operate so injuriously on our consumers, would 
cease, for without a high protective tariff they cannot 
exist. 

When the proposition was first made to establish a tariff 
for protection, it was avowed by the founders that it was 
only intended for the purpose of protecting our infant 
industries until they could stand on their feet and take care 
of themselves. But how long are our industries to remain 
infants ? Some of them are two hundred years old, and 
none, of any importance, are less than a century old. It 
seems that the higher the tariff and the longer it exists the 
less able are such industries to stand alone. This is really 
true in regard to most of them. Take the woolen mills, 
for instance, they are not prosperous in California or else- 
where. The principal and only cause of this is the tariff 
on wool. We only produce 260,000,000 pounds per annum. 



62 CLt:VELANP^ ADMimSTilATton. 

while we need over 650,000,000 pounds to enable our mills 
to manufacture sufficient goods to supply our own people. 
Upon this entire amount a tariif tax must be paid annually 
of many millions. How can they expect to survive under 
such a pressure ? 

There are a few sheep kings in the great West who would 
take the earth were it offered to them. It is believed, how- 
ever, that they are able to take pretty good care of them- 
selves without any extra subsidizing, for they herd their 
sheep principally upon Uncle Sam^s land, and feed them 
upon his grasses free of charge. They forget that 60,000,- 
000 of men, women and children, most of whom are 
laborers and people of moderate means, must have cloth- 
ing and many other fabrics manufactured from wool, and 
that the time has arrived when they are determined to so 
regulate the cost that they can be purchased at something 
near their actual worth. So far as the smaller sheep owners 
are concerned. President Cleveland clearly demonstrated in 
his message that they lost more than they gained by the 
tariff on wool. 

The high tariff on wool enables our manufacturers to 
manufacture shoddy and sell to consumers at prices which 
first-class woolen goods should be purchased for, as shown 
from an article by David A. Wells, as follows : 

But a more important effect of this great enhancement to the American 
manufacturer by the agency of the tariff on the cost of his needful supply or 
wool of foreign origin, and one not yet suflSciently understood or appreciated 
by the American masses, is the permanent inducement thereby created for 
the use of something as a substitute, or in the place of avooI, and the bounty 
insured in proportion as the substitution is successful. The substitute of 
hitherto first importance, and in most general use, is the fi^brous material 
obtained by tearing or grinding up old woolen fabrics, and which is desig- 
nated, according to its degree of disintegration, as "shoddy," "muugo," 
" waste," "devil's dust," etc. All agree that shoddy is not wool, and that its 
use involves a large element of deterioration. What it may be and generally 
is in its primal state may be inferred, if one remembers that so long as a wool 
fabric retains its original form it rarely passes out of use by men or animals, 
to become economically serviceable for the manufacturer of shoddy and its 
congeners, until it has become so saturated with, and so repulsive from, im- 



CLEVELAND'S ADMlNISmATION. 63 

purities, largely of an organic nature, that it can no longer subserve any 
original purpose as a fabric. 

"When the celebrated wool tariff bill of 1867 was before Congress the mem- 
bers of the Executive Committee of the National Association of "Wool Manu- 
facturers characterized shoddy in their report as "worthless material," and 
advocated the imposition of more "stringent duties" on its importation; 
and further declared, that if textiles made from shoddy were to be admitted 
under low duties the country would "bo inundated by wretched fabrics." 
And in the debates on the bill in question in Congress no little eloquence was 
expended in depicting the calamity and nastiness which Avould be entailed on 
the American people if they were to be tempted by cheapness into the wear- 
ing of woolen garments made of old rags. 

With a clear field guaranteed to them against the competition of the dis- 
reputable foreign manufacturers, and debaiTcd, also, from supplying themselves 
with coarse and cheap, but sound wools, by reason of the heavy duties on their 
importation, American manufacturers have tumbled over each other, as it 
were, in their eagerness to manufacture shoddy ; and the American people to- 
day, to the extent that they wear what are termed woolen clothes of American 
manufacture, probably wear more shoddy and less wool than the people of any 
other country. A brief history at this point of the use of shoddy in the 
United States is essential to the completeness of the discussion. Originally, 
or previous to 1860, it was used only for padding and stuffing saddles and the 
like. The war opened up a large opportunity for its profitable use in the 
fabrication of army cloth for overcoats, and the quality of such overcoats has 
not yet passed out of public memory. In 1870 the domestic annual consump- 
tion was reported at about 19,372,000 pounds, and in 1880 at an amount equiva- 
lent to about 70,000,000 pounds of unwashed wool. According to the censug 
of 1880, 41 per cent, of the material that constituted the so-called woolen fab- 
rics of the country was something that was not wool. 

As to the proportions of shoddy and other materials not wool which enter 
into the woolen fabrics of the United States at the present time, nothing, in 
the absence of the census returns for 1890, can bo definitely affirmed. And it 
is extremely doubtful whether data admitting of a correct estimate will now 
be furnished by manufacturers, or, if furnished, will bo given publicity by the 
present census authorities. There are, however, some very significant facts, 
independent of the census and accessible to the public, which will help 
in the formation of an intelligent opinion on this subject. For example, the 
importation of old woolen rags, shoddy "waste " and the like began to aug- 
ment almost as soon as the restrictive influences of the tariff of 18G7 on the 
importation of wool began to bo experienced. During the year 1870, 512,792 
pounds were returned as imported; in 1880 the imports were 1,388,2.33 pounds, 
and in 1889, 8,662,209 pounds, an increase in nine years of over 800 per cent. 

There is also a good deal of evidence tending to show that even shoddy is 
becoming too expensive, and therefore too good, for the protected American 
masses to use as material for their woolen clothing, and that cheaper cotton, 
with less of warmth and fitness, is being substituted. "Within the last few 
months (1891) the managers of a leading trade journal — the New York Drj/ 

1 



64 CLl^VELAND'8 ADMlNlSTBATlOK. 

Goods Eco)iomist — with, a view of obtaining some definite information on this 
subject, and more especially of determining why certain typical American 
woolen manufacturers — members of the Manufacturers' Club of Philadelphia 
— favored high and restrictive duties on the importof wool, and others equally 
prominent — members of the Wool Consumers' Association — were earnest advo- 
cates of free wool, subjected to an analysis two pieces of similar worsted 
cloths made by the respective parties. The results were as follows : A fabric 
made by Thomas Dolan & Co., representing the former — Mr. Dolan being also 
president of the Philadelphia Manufacturers' Club — and sold in large quanti- 
ties during the present season at prices varying from "apiece-dyed solid 
black at $1.50 to fancy weaves from $1.62^ to those containing silk twist at 
$1.75," was found to be composed of 28 j)er cent, of wool, which constituted 
the entire face of the cloth — ^ front and back — and 72 per cent, of cotton and 
shoddy, in the proportion of 92.} per cent, cotton and 7^ per cent, of shoddy. 
A finer fabric of the same order, " a cloth which everyone but an expert 
would call an all-wool worsted cloth," was found to contain "21 per cent, of 
Cotton and 79 per cent, of worsted," and the Economist adds : " The production 
of this firm is much superior to most of the cotton filled worsteds that are on 
the market." 

ANOTHEK CASE. 

From a similar analysis of the corresponding products of the Wanskuck 
Woolen Company of Rhode Island, controlled by a member of the (free) 
" "Wool Consumers' Association," the Uconomlst reports as follows : 

"The bulk of the product of this company this season consists of two 
fabrics of worsted weighing twenty-two to twenty-three , ounces. The 
low priced fabric at $2.25, less 5 percent., contains 73 per cent, of delaine 
worsted (wool), while 27 per cent, of carded wool yarn, containing a small per- 
centage of shoddy, is used for backing. 

" The higher-priced fabric sells at $2.75, less 5 percent., and is similarly 
built cloth to the lower one, but made of a somewhat finer grade of wool. The 
delaine wool is mixed with Australian, and of a worsted made from this blend 
the fabric contains 78 per cent, of its total weight. The backing composed 
the balance of the 22 per cent, and is made of a somewhat finer stock than the 
$2.25 grade." 

In view of these revelations, is it a mere coincidence, as the Uccnomist per- 
tinently asks, that the men engaged in the business of making bogus woolens 
and employing skilled designers, as they undoubtedly do, not so much for 
producing attractive fabrics as for ingeniously hiding from the public their 
inferior nature, should bo stanch advocates of a high tarifi" on wool ; while the 
manufacturers of all-wool goods are in favor of free wool? Is not the expla- 
nation to be found in the fact that high-taxed Arool means to its advocates a 
larger market for productions composed mainly of shoddy, cotton, cow hair 
and a little wool ; while the advocate of free wool feels that if he had all the 
markets of the world to draw from on the same basis as his foreign competi- 
tors, ho could meet the largo domestic demand for heavy woolens with goods 
made of all or nearly all wool. 



CLEVELAND'S ADMINISTRATION. 65 

Now, wherein is the pertinency of these facts to the scriptural text adopted 
as the title of this article, "There Is Death in the Pot?" Just here: The 
tariff taxes imposed on that proportion of the wool consumption of the coun- 
try — about 300, 000, 000 pounds — which the country does not produce , and which 
it is needful to import, augment the price of all-wool clothing to the American 
masses to a degree that they cannot afford, or are unwilling to pay. Let any- 
one Avho desires to test this matter for himself inquire at any respectable furn- 
ishing store the relative prices of undoubted all-wool fabrics and of the fabri- 
cations that ordinarily pass under the name of woolens, and he will be abun- 
dantly satisfied. The result is that the masses buy at some popularprice some- 
thing for their clothing Avhich is called "woolen," but which is not right- 
fully entitled to any such designation, something like the fabrics before 
referred to produced in Philadelphia and analyzed by the Dry Goods Ecotw- 
mist, which were composed of 72 per cent, of cotton and shoddy. The climate 
of the United States, especially of its northern portions, is, as everybody 
knows, liable to sudden and extreme changes in temperature, and for the prac- 
tically six winter months of the year it is most essential that all exposed to 
such changes should be warmly and substantially clad. No one in his senses 
would knowingly venture into an atmosphere charged with conditions favor- 
ing the "grip," pneumonia and the varied throat and lung ailments or dis- 
eases, clad in cotton garments. And yet this is exactly Avhat the workingmen 
and poorer classes of the country do habitually under a tariff system that pre- 
vents the proper and healthful use of wool for the most ordinary clothing pur- 
poses. Does not this condition of things also suggest a possible explanation 
of the fact that, while the mortality from consumption and pneumonia in the 
United States is greater than from any other causes, the rate per 100,000 deaths 
annually in this country from these diseases is far greater than in the cold and 
more damp climates of England and "VVales 1 

In 1880 the mortality from consumption in the United States was at the 
rate of 12,059 in every 100,000 deaths, and 8,300 from pneumonia. The cor- 
responding figures for the same year in England and"Wales were 9,141 for con- 
sumption and 4,772 for pneumonia. 

Certainly the man who Avears the cheap coat, which the high tariff on 
wool compels him to wear, is likely to become very cheap before he gets 
through wearing it. 

It is certainly not in keeping with good judgment to 
refuse to support a policy which will cheapen our goods. 
The cheapening of goods, by reducing the cost of raw 
materials, cannot cheapen labor, for the cheaper the mill 
men can purchase their materials, the more they can afford 
to pay their laborers. Cloth is raw material with the tailor, 
iron with the blacksmith, lumber with the cabinet maker. 
Will cheap cloth, cheap iron, and cheap lumber cheapen 
their labor ? Away with all such balderdash ! A high tariff 



66 CLEVELAND'S ADMINISTRATION. 

cheapens labor, creates monopolies, and monopolies crowd 
out and crush individual and small concerns. High tariff 
is for the benefit of aggregated capital and large concerns, 
and not for labor. Give us cheap goods, a restriction upon 
foreign contract labor, and prevent the accumulation of an 
unnecessary surplus in the treasury, so that the money will 
remain among the people, where it belongs, and labor will 
have a basis upon which it can stand and protect itself. 
Then we will have more factories and more employment for 
labor. The exportation of productions from free raw ma- 
terials would result in bringing back to us our commerce, 
and enrich the manufacturer at the expense of foreigners 
instead of our own people. Give us raw materials free, and 
we will again compete with England in the markets of the 
world, and the wealth of the nation be increased from the 
benefits derived from commercial intercourse with other 
nations. 

When President Cleveland issued his statesman-like mes- 
sage, knowing as he did that both the Democratic and Ee- 
publican parties had pledged themselves to so regulate the 
tariff as to lessen the cost of necessaries, and prevent the 
accumulation of an unnecessary surplus in the treasury, 
there immediately went up a general howl from the most 
radical leaders and newspapers of the Republican party, 
falsely charging that the president had pledged himself 
fairly and squarely upon the free-trade platform. Their 
unlimited hypocrisy was then, and has since been, contin- 
ually shown, by similar assertions. Nowhere in the presi- 
dents message can be found a word or sentence which 
advocates or favors free- trade, On the contrary, he con- 
sistently maintained that the tariff be so reduced on neces- 
saries as to reduce the needless surplus in the treasury, with 
due regard to the manafacturing interests, and thereby les- 
sen the burden of taxation which falls so heavily upon the 
consumers of the nation. 

The first great Republican leader who attempted to level 



CLEVELAND'S ADMINISTRATION. 67 

a fatal blow at the president's message was John Sherman, 
whose name when mentioned sends a thrill of horror to the 
heart of many a producer and laboring man. For down- 
right deception, his speech made upon the president's mes- 
sage, on the 4th of January, 1888, in the United kStates 
Senate, cannot be equaled. 

In the commencement he intimated that Greneral Jack- 
son had the good fortune to have an unnecessary surplus of 
the people's money in the treasury. We have here an ex- 
tract from Jackson's farewell address which settles the 
question as to his views upon a tariff resulting in a needless 
surplus in the treasury. He said : 

There is, perhaps, no one of the powers conferred on the Federal govern- 
ment so liable to abuse as the taxing power. The most productive and con- 
venient source of revenue was necessarily given to it that it might be able to 
perform the important duties imposed upon it ; and the taxes which it lays 
upon commerce being concealed from the real payer in the price of the 
articles, they do not so readily attract the people as smaller sums demanded 
from them directly by the tax gatherers. But the tax imposed on goods en- 
hances so much the price of the commodity to the consumer ; and as many 
of these duties are imposed on articles of necessity which are daily used by 
the great body of the people, the money raised by these imposts is drawn 
from their pockets. Congress has no right under the Constitution to take 
money from the people, unless it is required to execute some of the specific 
powers intrusted to the government, and if they raise more than is necessary 
for such purpose it is an abuse of the power of taxation, and unjust and op- 
pressive. It may, indeed, happen that the revenue will sometimes exceed 
the amount anticipated when the taxes were laid. When, however, this is 
ascertained it is easy to reduce them; and in such a case it is unquestionably 
the duty of the government to reduce them, for no circumstance will justify 
it in assuming a power not given to it by the Constitution, nor in taking 
away the money of the people when it is not needed for the legitimate wants 
of the government. 

Plain as these principles appear to be, you will find that there is a con- 
stant effort to induce the general government to go beyond the limits of its 
taxing power, and to impose unnecessary burdens upon the people. Many 
powerful interests are constantly at work to procure heavy duties on com- 
merce, and to swell the revenues beyond the real necessities of the public 
service; and the country has already felt the injurious effects of their com- 
bined influence. 

Nothing can oe found in the foregoing to indicate, in the 
slightest degree, that Jackson considered a needless surplus 



68 CLEVELAND'S ADMINISTRATION. 

in the treasury a good fortune, either to himself, or to the 
nation. 

In the same speech Mr. Sherman gave utterance to the 
following words, which are an insult to common intelligence, 
to wit : 

The president liad cast doubt upon the power of the secretary of the treas- 
ury to enter the market and purchase bonds. He spoke of it as a pretense or 
supposition. But the second section of the Sundry Civil bill of March 1881, 
gave the Secretary of the Treasury power, at any time, to apply the surplus, 
or so much of it as he might consider proper, to the purchase or redemption of 
United States bonds — such bonds to be canceled and not to constitute a part 
of the sinking fund. That law had been passed by his (Mr. Sherman's) request, 
while he was Secretary of the Treasury, to meet every difficulty and to operate 
at any time. Under it the Secretary of the Treasury could have and ought to 
have applied this surplus from time to time to the purchase or redemption of 
United States bonds. 

Why did not Mr. Sherman state what Mr. Cleveland did 
say in his message in relation to the power of the Secretary 
of the Treasury to go into the markets and purchase bonds? 
As he failed to do so, we quote Mr. Cleveland's language in 
relation to the bond-purchasing power, that the contrast 
between honesty and demagogism may the more clearly 
appear. Mr. Cleveland said : 

Heretofore the redemption of 3 per cent, bonds, which were payable at the 
option of the government, has offered a means for the disbursement of the 
excess of our revenues ; but these bonds have all been retired, and there are 
no bonds outstanding, the payment of which Are have a right to insist upon. 
The contribution to the sinking fund, which furnishes the occasion for 
expenditures in the purchase of bonds, has already been made for the current 
year, so that there is no outlet in that direction. 

In considering the question of purchasing bonds as a means of restoring 
to circulation the surplus money accumulating in the treasury, it should be 
borne in mind that premiums must be paid on a large part of these bonds held 
as investments, which cannot be purchased at any price, and that combinations 
of owners, who are unwilling to sell, may unreasonably enhance the cost of 
such bonds to the government. 

This language speaks for itself. Mr. Cleveland asserted 
what was true when he said that all the bonds within call 
liad been paid, and the president considered it unwise and 
.unjust to enter the bond markets with the people's money 




/^.J^^^^^i^Ci^^.^^^^?^:^-^^^^ 



CLEVELAND'S ADMINISTRATION. 71 

and pay from 24 to 30 per cent, in the shape of a premium 
for the privilege of paying their debts, for such was exacted 
by the holders of the bonds. John Sherman knows as well 
as any man living that such a proceeding is wrong, but it is 
a fact that he, backed by the entire power of the Republican 
party, engineered the policy of funding the bonds so that 
years must elapse before the government could pay a dollar 
of its interest-bearing debt without paying a large premium 
for the privilege. 

The issue presented by the president's message was not 
that of free-trade against protection. It was a question of 
right and wrong. It was a question whether the hoard- 
ing of the people's money in the treasury, where it could do 
no good to anybody, was right or wrong. It was a question 
whether the people should stand idly by and suffer every 
drop of blood in their veins to be extracted and every pound 
of flesh plucked from their bones for the benefit of a few 
capitalistic leeches and blood-suckers. It was a question 
whether the American laborer should be permitted to exist 
as a human being, or was to sink into a condition worse 
than that of the beast. It was a question whether the 
American laborers and producers should have better houses, 
"better and cheaper clothing, and all things which contribute 
to the comfort and happiness of the masses. 

What sort of arguments do Republicans use in attempt- 
ing to defend their unnatural position ? They never have 
dealt fairly with the question in any particular. They do 
not base a solitary argument on truth, for the truth ruins 
their cause. Their arguments consist of empty assertions 
that a high tariff is necessary to protect the poor laborer, 
and this argument is assisted by the panic argument, in 
certain mills shutting down and throwing their men out of 
employment, and keeping them out until they are starved 
into voting the Republican ticket. Senator Fry has been 
known to assert that the question had been settled in favor 
of high proteotiv© tariff by the boys in every school-house* 



72 CLEVELAND'S ABMINISTBATION. 

This may be the case in New England, where Blaine and 
Fry reside, and in Pennsylvania, where most of the pro- 
tected monopolies are located, for it is not improbable that 
in those sections great care is taken to teach the young 
mind how to shoot on the tariff question. Ignorance is 
there taught, that the student may go forth with a super- 
stitious idea on the question of protection, that he may not 
be disturbed by reasoning to the contrary, however sound it 
might be. But the time has about arrived when the teach- 
ing of Buch frauds and falsehoods will not win, for not 
only men, but boys, who enter the great field of industry 
for themselves, are discovering that high protective tariff 
means to them such as the wolf deals out to its victim. 

Eepublicans boast of their management of the financial 
affairs of the government. What is their financial policy, 
and what has been the result from it ? Their favorite idea 
has always been to so contract the circulating medium as to 
keep the country on the verge of financial panic. By their 
abominable policy of contraction they brought upon the 
nation in 1873 the greatest financial crash this or any other 
country ever witnessed, from the effect of which the country 
has never recovered. Every Eepublican president aad 
secretary of the treasury since 1866 has declared that the 
government notes or greenbacks should be retired from 
circulation, and, since 1873, they have sworn to destroy 
silver as money. Not having been able to succeed in their 
nefarious purposes, on account of the House of Representa- 
tives becoming strongly Democratic in 1877, they now pro- 
pose to accomplish their design in contracting the currency 
by hoarding and refusing to create a greater circulating 
medium. In other words, their general policy is to lessen 
the circulation of money as population increases and the 
demands of business call for more money circulation,. 
People ought to know at this day and age that plenty of 
money in circulation makes good times, and that scarcity of 
money makes hard times^ and that it is the creditor class 



CLEVELAND'S ADMINISTRATION. 73 

who are constantly intriguing to bring about a contraction 
of the currency ; for the less there is^, the more their 
securities are worthy, and the more difficult it is for the 
people to procure money to pay their debts and purchase 
the necessaries of life. 

Republicans nominated and elected Benjamin Harrison 
president. What had Benjamin Harrison done that he 
should receive the suffrages of the laborers of this broad 
land ? To be sure^, he is^ and always has been^ the very 
embodiment of Republicanism in all its worst phases. He 
ran upon a platform which strongly favored sumptuary 
laws. He received the vote of every unconscientious 
monopolist in the Chicago Convention. He always opposed 
the coinage of silver, and is known to be its worst enemy. 
He has always opposed an increase of money circulation 
commensurate with the increase of population and the 
demands of business. He never failed to oppose the efforts 
of laboring men to better their condition. He is the repre- 
sentative of all the great monopolies in the nation, and his 
nomination was demanded by them. Where then are his 
redeeming qualities, except that of being the grandson of 
his grandfather. The Republican party had been grabbing 
at straws like a drowning man for sometime. They experi- 
mented with the son of his father several times, but 
finally succeeded when they tried the grandson of his 
grandfather. They say they ran Harrison upon the same 
issue his grandfather ran upon. They forgot it was during 
the administration which the grandfather represented that 
the Whig party, which elected him, proved traitor to their 
promise to stand by the Henry Clay tariff compromise of 
1832, and caused the enactment of the high tariff of 1842, 
which hastened the death of the Whig party, and it is not 
impossible that the treachery of the Republican part}^, in 
not redeeming its solemn pledges to properly regulate the 
tariff, will hasten its dissolution and death. 



CHAPTEE 11. 

haekison's administration, the tariff, reciprocity 
treaties, ship subsidies and other questions. 

pEPUBLICANS asserted during the campaign of 1888 
^^ that the Democratic party, during Cleveland's admin- 
istration, did nothing for the benefit of the country. We 
have already referred to many important results which were 
accomplished during Cleveland's administration. But we 
must admit that during his administration the Democratic 
party was unable to relieve the people from the burdens 
which rest so heavily upon them by way of a high tariff 
tax, for its action in that direction was forestalled by an 
aristocratic Republican Senate, which heeds no voice save 
that of monopoly and arrogant wealth. Hydra-headed Shy- 
lock is a terrible monster to confront when licensed to in- 
vade the sacred halls of a great republic, and it comes in 
bad grace for its sycophants to charge the Democratic party 
with not having accomplished that which they themselves 
prevented. 

At the close of Cleveland's administration there was a 
large surplus in the treasury, which had been forced from 
the people by unjust taxation ; but it is a notorious fact 
that, during Harrison's administration, it has been success- 
fully squandered, and appropriations made for hundreds of 
millions more in advance of legitimate present needs. To 
meet such extravagance, taxation has been increased instead 
of diminished. This is not the line of policy that Cleve- 
land and his administration were pursuing. Their policy 
was not to squander the surplus, but to prevent its unneces- 
sary accumulation by reducing taxation, that the people 

74 



HARBISON'S ADMINISTRATION. 75 

might be relieved therefrom. But it has been the policy of 
the Republican party^ under Harrison^s administration, to 
squander the surplus^, and at the same to increase taxation, 
that the burdens of the people might be increased, and the 
Republican party become possessed of a greater supply for 
its boodlers. 

Those who part with their profits to pay taxes upon the 
necessaries of life should learn that the wasting of public 
funds, no matter how great or how small the amount may 
be, cannot thereby be relieved from the burdens of taxation ; 
for, when a surplus is wasted, it does not come back to 
those who contributed to its creation, but goes directly into 
the hands of sharks and speculators who, alone, receive the 
benefits of it. The man who pays out a dollar for taxes, 
cannot pay another dollar, until he has earned it, and if 
the funds in the treasury, to which he contributes a portion, 
or all of his profits, is squandered, his taxes must necessarily 
be increased, as has been done under Harrison^s adminis- 
tration. But he must earn every dollar with which he must 
meet this increased taxation ; for he is not permitted to 
place his hands into the public treasury and draw the money 
therefrom with which to pay his taxes It will not do for the 
taxpayers of this country to fall in with the abominable idea 
advanced by Republicans that anything is fair and right 
which gets money out of the treasury. This idea is the 
most demoralizing and destructive of any which can be 
conceived of in a free government. 

It is claimed by Republican leaders that the Republican 
party was called to power in 1888 by the voice of the peo- 
ple, and that the tariff policy, as embodied in the McKinley 
bill, was indorsed by a large majority of the voters in the 
nation. This claim is without foundation. The Demo- 
cratic candidate not only received a large majority of the 
popular vote for president, but most men who cast their 
votes for the Republican candidate did so with the under- 
standing that the new administration would reform the 



76 HARRISON ^S ADMINISTRATION'. 

tariff^ as leading Eepublicans had so often promised to do, 
that the people might be relieved of its evil effects. The 
people have been demanding for a long time a reduction of 
the tariff tax. The millions of farmers throughout the 
country did not believe, prior to the election of 1888, that 
this high tariff system is the highway to prosperity and 
wealth, nor do they now believe it. Too many of them 
are beginning to learn, to their sorrow, that, while a major- 
ity of the Eepublican leaders are controlled by, and are 
acting as the agents of, corporate money power, they, them- 
selves, are entirely at the mercy of those moneyed corpora- 
tions. Their farms are heavily mortgaged, and their 
products are almost worthless, except when a famine occurs 
in Europe, giving them a chance. They have to pay the 
highest prices for all they purchase, and they are fast 
becoming convinced that in a few years their condition will 
be that of tenants, instead of the owners of the soil. They 
are retiring to private life such men as John J. Ingalls, who 
asserted, in the presence of his constituents, that the 
McKinley tariff bill contained many damaging provisions, 
increasing, instead of relieving the burdens of the people ; 
but, as it was a party measure, he was compelled to support 
it. Thus was uncovered the dark, infamous, and mysterious 
ways by which the machinery of the Eepublican party is 
controlled, and the manner that party proposes to allow 
itself to be controlled in legislating in behalf of the people 
of this great republic. This fire-eating senator from 
Kansas virtually acknowledged that he had surrendered to 
the moneyed power his right of thinking, speaking and act- 
ing, whenever the demands of that power came in conflict 
with the rights and just demands of the people. Senators 
and representatives in Congress should emancipate them- 
selves from the arbitrary power of this moneyed oligarchy, 
in order that our agriculturists may be freed from its cruel 
oppressions, and the thousands who labor in our factories 
and mines may be permitted to cast their ballots without 



HARBISON'S ADMINISTBATION. 11 

fear of the threats or intermeddling of their self -constituted 
masters. 

There cannot be found much^ if any, more personal, civil, 
political, and religious liberty among people who are sub- 
jected to the demoralizing influences and tyrannical control 
of a moneyed oligarchy, then are possessed by people who are 
subject to the co:i:rol of a monarch. The tendency of a 
moneyed oligarchy :3 to establish monarchy, and monarchy 
cannot exist without a moneyed oligarchy. Under either, or 
both powers combined, the thoughts, opinions and actions 
of men are circumscribed, held under surveillance by the vil- 
lainous power above them, and their spirits cowed and held 
down so that their advancement, growth and development 
is retarded or absolutely prevented. 

The English people struggled for years to obtain some of 
the natural rights which belong to human beings, consisting 
of the freedom of thought, action and the rights of prop- 
erty, which had been denied them for centuries, by kings 
and lordly aristocrats, after which they became a progress- 
ive people. The founders of our republic gave to us more 
freedom than the people of England compelled their sover- 
eign to recognize, and, as a natural consequence, the accumu- 
lation of wealth has been greater, until recent years, and 
its distribution among the people more just and equitable 
than in any other country. 

But it is a singular fact that people are careless of their lib- 
erty, and often yield it up to centralized power through the 
persuasiveness of their own party leaders. The history of 
our republic is replete with instances of this character. 
During the past twenty-five years the dominant party has 
forced legislation far beyond the bounds of constitutional 
limits and sound public policy. And still Kepublicans 
assert that the Democratic party is opposed to progress, and 
that the Republican party, only, represents American ideas. 
Bless their overburdened moral and intellectual souls, they 
have eithe^r forgotten *)r ^p-^^r knew that the centralization 



78 HABBISON'S ADMINISTRATION. 

of power into the hands of the few is not only unrepub- 
lican^ but far more ancient than the foundation of the 
British government. They have forgotten that subsidizing 
wealthy corporations and wealthy individuals by land grants 
and money taken from the public treasury, is an ancient 
British custom. They have never yet learned that the 
delegation to national banks of the power to control the 
finances of the nation, and to dictate not only what the 
character of our money shall be, but what shall be the price 
of all our property and products, is an old British idea. 
They have not yet become cognizant of the fact that a high 
protective tariff is much older than the British government, 
and, of the nations of Europe, England adopted it first, 
and held on to it longer than any other of those nations, to 
the ruination of her people. They do not discover, to this 
day, that the Eepublican party is attempting to ape English 
ways in their efforts to destroy silver, and establish a 
national bank note in imitation of that of the Bank of 
England on the one hand, and gold on the other, which 
shall constitute the only money medium in this country. 
They probably never will learn that the control of elections 
by Eederal officers, which never did exist except in empires, 
is an ancient and tyrannical system, and should not be counte- 
nanced in what is supposed to be the most free and enlight- 
ened republic upon which the sun ever shone. 

Then we assert, as we have heretofore, that the Dem- 
ocratic party is the American party, and is the party of 
progress ; while the Republican party is the British party, 
and is treading a path leading back to the dark ages. 

During Harrison^s administration ^' the country has been 
congratulated that the government is going backward to 
espouse the ideas of Alexander Hamilton." What is it that 
is so attractive, so charming in the ideas of Hamilton ? He 
wanted a strong centralized government, formed on the 
model of the British government. He wanted the governors 
of states appointed by the president, not elected by the 



HABBISON'S ABMINISTBATION. 79 

people and responsible to them. He wanted the president 
to have the veto power over the acts of the legislatures of 
the states. Hamilton believed the English government was 
the best in the world. 

Hamilton and Jefferson represented the opposing ideas 
that contended for mastery in the formation of our govern- 
ment. One defied power, the other liberty. In other 
words, Hamilton loved the people as infants whom he was 
afraid to trust without nurses ; Jefferson loved them as 
adults whom he freely left to self-government. Hamilton 
did not believe the people capable of self-government ; 
Jefferson did. Hamilton believed that whatever rights the 
people have they obtain from the government ; Jefferson 
believed that whatever rights the government had it ob- 
tained from the people. Hamilton believed the govern- 
ment was the parent and the people its children ; Jefferson 
believed the people were the masters and the government 
the servant. 

" These are the Hamiltonian ideas to which we are told 
the country is joyfully turning. If that be true we are 
wending our way back to the darkness and despotism of the 
middle ages. Our progress must be arrested and we must 
cease to be the wonderful people we have been from the be- 
ginning of our history. 

'^^In the great struggle in 1800 Jefferson triumphed over 
Hamilton and liberty over power. In the eight years of his 
administration and the eight years of Madison^'s and the 
eight years of Monroe^'s the Democratic principles became 
so thoroughly imbedded in the popular heart that the Ham- 
iltonian idea was extinct, and the Federal party, which he 
had created, and of which he was the head, was dead. It 
did not have a mourner in all the land. There was no man 
anywhere who denied or doubted the capacity of the people 
for self government, or who denied or doubted the wisdom 
of distributing the powers of government among many 
agencies. Democracy was all triumphant. But for the last 



80 HABBISON'S ADMINISTRATION, 

twenty-five years the Kepublican party has been conjuring 
at the ghost of Federalism and directing the administration 
of government so as to centralize all power in one central 
government. Little by little the national has been encroach- 
ing on the state governments and on the rights of the citi- 
zen/' Year after year since the war the old battles between 
Federalism and the doctrines of Thomas Jefferson have been 
fought over again, and the people have been yielding up little 
by little their rights to the stealthy encroachments of the 
moneyed power. During that time the dominant power, 
through the blandishments of its agents, bearing the cloak 
of patriotism with which they always cover their slimy car- 
casses when advocating measures which they know will rob 
the masses for the benefit of the few, have taken the most 
careful pains to excite sectional hatred and animosity, and 
made the most unprincipled efforts to legislate the Repub- 
lican party into perpetual power, that the fetters whicli 
have been riveted to the limbs of our agriculturists and 
laboring men by this moneyed oligarchy may remain un- 
touched and unbroken. 

Harrison^s administration has given birth to the anomaly 
known as the McKinley tariff bill, already referred to, 
which increases the burden of taxation annually to the esti- 
mated extent of about $75,000,000. This bill transfers 
many articles from the free to the dutiable list, and places 
on most of them a very high tax, and increases the tax on 
many ra,w materials. The duty on wool is increased 
25 per cent. Gamers hair is taken from the free list and 
taxed 77 per cent. Mica is taken from the free list and 
taxed 35 per cent. The tax on cement is increased 50 per 
cent., and on lime to 250 per cent, over the old rates. The 
duty on tin plate is increased 115 per cent, over the old 
rate. The duty is greatly increased on most cotton goods, 
linen goods, laces, window curtains and embroideries. The 
tax has been increased on dress goods for men^sand women's 
wear, also upon most kindf of silk and silk goods. The 



EABBISON'S ADMINISTRATION. 81 

duty has been increased on glassware, china and porcelain. 
The duty has been increased on most manufactured articles 
of iron and steel, musical instruments, and on many other 
articles of necessity which cannot be enumerated here ; and 
thus the Chinese wall of exclusion has been greatly extended 
and strengthened. 

That such a policy will diminish our trade with foreign 
countries, retard the progress of building and improve- 
ments, distress our agriculturists and laboring people, if 
it does not ruin some of our factories, is very evident to 
most thinking men. This is the policy which the rich and 
the powerful are dictating, by which they are to continue to 
make their millions at an increased ratio from the j)i'ofits 
of the masses, if any be left them ; and when their profits 
are gone, to absorb their capital, their all; and, to cow 
down the opponents of this policy, this rich and powerful 
combination employs agents in Congress, and elsewhere, to 
denounce as demagogues those who undertake to represent 
the cause of the common people of the country. 

This bill makes a great change in what is known as the 
drawback to which we have heretofore referred, which per- 
mits the mill men to manufacture articles containing 
imported materials, and, when the manufactured articles 
are exported, the manufacturer has returned to him the 
duty paid upon the imported materials. Under the law 
prior to the passage of the McKinley bill, the manufacture 
of articles coming under this head was confined to a certain 
enumerated number or class of manufactured commodities, 
and the manufacturer could have returned to him 90 
per cent, of the duty paid upon the imported raw materials 
entering into the manufacture of such commodities ; but 
under the McKinley bill a drawback is extended to all com- 
modities so manufactured and exported, and the draw- 
back increased to 99 per cent, of the duty paid on 
the imported raw materials contained therein. By this 
means the foreigner is permitted to purchase our manufact- 



82 HABBISON'S ADMINISTRATION. 

ured commodities made from imported raw materials, 9 
per cent, cheaper than prior to the passage of the Mc- 
Kinley bill, and our own citizens are compelled to pay as 
much more for the same articles than they did before, as 
the tariff tax has been increased by the McKinley bill ; for 
it must not be forgotten that neither the manufacturer is 
permitted to have any drawback upon any commodities 
sold to our own citizens, nor are our own citizens permitted 
to purchase any of the commodities to which the draw- 
back applies. For whose benefit is such a discrimination, 
and at whose expense ? A tax is placed upon imported 
commodities so high as to exclude them, thus forcing our 
people to purchase from our home manufacturers at any 
price they see fit to charge, and the tariff tax on raw 
materials removed, by way of a drawback, in order that 
the mill men may export their commodities that foreigners 
may purchase them for less than one-half what our own 
citizens are permitted to purchase them for. This out- 
landish discrimination is directly in favor of the mill men 
and foreign purchasers, and against our own consumers, 
and at their expense. This policy is criminally unjust, for 
it is evident that, if our mill men can manufacture and 
export their commodities with a profit when imported raw 
materials are contained therein, after receiving a drawback 
of from 90 to 99 percent., then the tariff tax should be entirely 
removed from such raw materials, and our own consumers 
permitted to purchase such commodities at as low a price 
as people residing in foreign lands. This would be a grand 
step toward fairness and equality, which has been so long 
promised by Eepublican leaders and officials. 

Were there no consumers there would be no demand for 
a protective tariff. To maintain such a system there must 
be consumers, and our protective industries have become 
such overgrown infants that they insist that the greater the 
number of consumers becomes, the higher the tariff tax 
should be. Were every class of industries in the country to 



HARBISON'S ADMINISTRATION. 83 

insist upon the establishment of a system of tariff tax 
which would compel every other class to purchase its com- 
modities at a price fixed by itself, each industry would fall 
out with the other, and the result would be the entire 
destruction of the tariff system ; for so rotten a system, 
especially when carried to such extremes as noAV exist, 
could not stand if applied universally and equally. In 
order to sustain a class protective tariff system, certain 
classes of industries must combine to fleece other classes, 
and have their victims held by the strong arm of the gov- 
ernnient, so that they may be forced to buy the goods of the 
favored classes at whatever price they may ask. In this 
way certain classes are protected, but not the consumer, 
whom it is proposed to fleece from now to eternity. If he 
is naked, they pass laAvs to make him pay a higher price for 
clothes. If he is hungry, he is compelled to eat less, or 
pay more for his provender. 

The committee which reported the McKinley bill said : 

"We have not been so much concerned about the prices of the articles we 
consume as we have been to encourage a system of home production. 

That they have not concerned themselves about the con- 
sumer appears very clearly to all who take the trouble to 
examine the provisions of that bill. Before its passage 
many petitions were sent in by representatives of different 
industrial interests, demanding lower taxes on the necessa- 
ries of life and upon raw materials, but instead of recog- 
nizing the prayers of those petitioners they have, as we have 
already stated, not only increased the taxes, but placed a 
tax upon many articles which were free. And what makes 
the matter far worse is, that the tax has been greatly in- 
creased upon nearly every article used by the people from 
necessity. In other words, the McKinley bill has, in every 
instance, increased the taxes on the poor man to the advan- 
tage of the rich. While the poor man pays the taxes, the 
rich man gets the benefit in accordance with that well known 
passage of scripture that '' For whosoever hath, to him shall 



84 HABEISON'S ADMINISTRATION. 

be given, and he shall have abundance; but whosoever 
hath not from him shall be taken away even that he hath. '' 

As we have before stated, the tariff tax upon tin plate 
is more than doubled by the McKinley bill. Is it possible 
for any protectionist to explain why this should be done ? 
Why such a leech as this should be fastened to the body 
politic ? 

Does it not look reasonable that the canneries which 
exist in different parts of the country, and the farmers 
everywhere, who, not only find a market for their fruits 
and vegetables at these canneries, but who are large con- 
sumers of tin, should be entitled to as much consideration 
at the hands of our law-makers as combinations and syndi- 
cates, who are interested in having tin excluded that they 
may try the experiment of substituting some other more 
worthless and still more expensive commodity in its 
stead ? It is admitted that no tin plate is produced in this 
country. Why then should there be any duty upon it at 
all, much less more than doubled ? It is asserted by some 
that pig tin can be produced from mines yet to be found in 
the Dakotas sufficient to supply our wants. But this is 
simply a subterfuge, and those who assert it know that tin 
has never yet been found in this country in sufficient 
quantities to make the mining thereof at all profitable. 
That the scheme of more than doubling the tariff on tin 
plate was promulgated by a combination of sheet iron 
manufacturers, there can be no doubt. The naked propo- 
sition is that this doubling of taxation on tin plate is to 
force the people to abandon tin, and compel them, if 
possible, to pay an enormous price for sheet iron for all the 
purposes for which tin is now used, that the profits of the 
sheet iron manufacturer may be doubled. It is the poor and 
middle classes of our people who, almost exclusively, 
purchase, use, and consume the articles and wares manu- 
factured from tin, and they purchase and consume most of the 
meats, vegetables and fruits put up by our canning factories. 



HABBISON'S ADMINISTBATION. 85 

The millionaire is not affected by the burden of this 
increased tax, for it is not much tinware that he con- 
sumes. He uses knives, forks, and spoons that are 
embellished with gold, silver, ivory, and pearls. His 
sets are either solid gold or silver, or lined and striped with 
those precious metals. He is surrounded with all things 
which are gorgeous and precious. But tin is a necessity in 
every ordinary household in the land. The rich need not 
use it, but everybody else must. G-o into the homes of the 
poor and those of moderate means, and there you will find 
the tin bucket, washboards, coffee pots, tea pots, cups, from 
gallons down to half pints, fruit cans, lamps, and their 
houses roofed over with tin. It is not possible to name the 
purposes for which tin plate is used in this country by the 
middle and poorer classes, and still the tax has been more 
than doubled upon this article for the benefit of a few mil- 
lionaires, in the face of the fact that there is no industry in 
this country which can produce a pound of tin plate, and 
consequently no such industry to protect. The doctrine 
which is here adopted in relation to tin is worse than that 
of the communists, for it robs the poor for the benefit of 
the rich, while the communists would rob the rich for the 
benefit of the poor. ^'^Yet a great political party makes 
the proposition to producers and consumers of the United 
States that they shall tax themselves indefinitely from 116,- 
000,000 to $20,000,000 each year, and shall endure it world 
without end, until, as they hope, some monopolist will 
arise to appropriate the profits. ^■' 

Another illustration which shows the inequalities of this 
scheme of placing such a tax on tin plate, is the discrimi- 
nation which it permits in favor of foreign citizens and 
against our own citizens. It allows the manufacturer of 
canned provisions to sell to his foreign customers at a price 
represented by free tin ; for if he exports his canned com- 
modities, 99 per cent, of the tariff tax on the tin plate used 
in making the cans is returned to the exporter. The man- 



86 HABBISON'S ADMINISTRATION. 

ufacturer who sends abroad liis canned chicken, tongue, 
tomatoes, apples, peaches, apricots and other fruits to feed 
the millions in foreign lands, sells to them for a price that 
he cannot sell for to the mechanics and laborers of this 
country. It is a discrimination in favor of foreigners and 
against the American poor. It is taking money out of the 
pockets of American consumers for the benefit of foreigners. 
This is not only inequality, but it is iniquity. 

The tax on lamp chimneys is increased enormously. The 
lamp chimney is, comparatively an insignificant thing, and 
our sagacious Eepublican legislators may have an idea that 
people who are compelled to use them do not care how 
much they are taxed ; but it cannot be possible that the 
masses of the people of this country have yet gone crazy. 
This tax demonstrates to what extremities the stealthy 
agents of a few millionaires will go in providing for their 
protection. They carefully select out all those articles, no 
matter how insignificant they may be, and which are a 
necessity for all the common people, and place a tax upon 
each article of the kind from one-half to twice what it is 
worth. It is only a small matter, as nobody except ordinary 
people use them ; and, as they are clever and patient, they 
would as soon pay double what a lamp chimney is worth as 
not. The rich in the towns and cities use either gas or 
electric light. They do not pay much of this tax. The 
poor can pay it or go to bed when dark comes. If the 
children have not their lessons learned before that time 
comes, they may have a light by paying two prices for a 
lamp chimney, otherwise not. Those who are unable to 
spare from their half -paid labors sufficient to provide means 
to guide their footsteps in the dark hours of night, may 
either go to bed, or wander in darkness. This is the sort of 
taxation that this Republican bill has established, and which 
is in response to the suggestions and requests of monopoly 
iind wealth. 

It is impossible to comment here at length upon the 



HABRISON'S ABMINISTHATION. 



87 



injustice of the McKinley tariff schedules, but the follow- 
ing table shows the increase of duty over the old rate on 
articles of daily use, and the reader may contemplate, to 
his hearths content, its enormity : 



Articles. 



Common, -windovr-glass, 10 by 15 

Common •vrindow-glass, 16 by 34 

Common window-glass, 24 by 30 

Common window- glass, above that 

Freestone, granite 

Freestone, granite, hewn or dressed 

Cotton-ties 

Tin plate 

Steel ingots, etc., above 16 cents per pound 

Wire fence-rods, No. 6 

Penknives, etc 

Table cutlery 

Shotguns 

Mica 

Horses 

Cattle 

Hogs 

Sheep 

Eggs 

Plants, trees, etc 

Fish, fresh 

Schedule F, tobacco 

Plushes 

Hosiery 

Shirts and di'awers 

Burlaps 

Bro^vn and bleached linens 

Brown and bleached linens 

Yarns 

Woolens and worsteds, knit goods, etc 

Do 

Do 

Do 

Do 

Worsted knit goods, under 30 cents 

Worsted knit goods, 30 to 40 cents 

Worsted knit goods, 40 to 60 cents 

Worsted knit goods, 60 to 80 cents 

Worsted knit goods, above 80 cents 

Worsted shawls 

Belts for presses (printing) 

Blankets and flannels and hats 

Women's and children's dress goods 

Do 

Do 

Clothing, ready made 

Cloaks, dolmans, etc 

Webbings, gorings. etc 



Old 


Xew 


duty. 


duty. 


Per cent. 


Per cent. 


67.61 


73.72 


115.41 


133.10 


128.58 


135.34 


132.29 


138.04 


20.22 


40.00 


20.00 


50.00 


35.00 


115.00 


34.00 


74.00 


11.89 


45.00 


45.00 


54.00 


50.00 


75.00 


35.00 


50.00 


35.00 


60.00 


Free. 


35.00 


20.00 


70.00 


20.00 


61.94 


20.00 


45.68 


20.00 


50.00 


Free. 


32.91 


Free. 


20.00 


Free. 


52.10 


81.00 


200.00 


40.00 


100.00 


40.00 


60.00 


40.00 


65.00 


30.00 




35.00 


50.66 


35.00 


60.00 


69.00 


100.00 


94.59 


125.00 


88.43 


135.00 


93.81 


124.00 


68.41 


147 00 


67.60 


130.00 


73.20 


130.00 


68.41 


147.00 


67.60 


130.00 


68.98 


112.00 


71.22 


90.00 


61.82 


93.00 


53.14 


101.00 


69.70 


110.00 


68.00 


103.00 


60.00 


73.00 


85.00 


110.00 


54.00 


84.00 


60.00 


82.00 


64.00 


99.00 



88 HABBISON'S ADMINISTRATION. 

According to the alleged pretext of the Kepublican 
party^ that it is necessary to maintain such high 
duties in order to enable our manufacturers to pay 
their laborers higher wages^ we presume that the labor- 
ers in the mines and mills are entitled to an increase of 
wages in proportion to the increased per cent, of tariif tax. 
But are they obtaining it ? The McKinley bill has increased 
the tax upon nearly every commodity manufactured in this 
country and in common use among the people^ from 20 to 
120 per cent.; but while this increased tax enables the 
manufacturers to charge the consumers more for their com- 
modities^ the poor laborer has no increase of Avages^ but in 
many instances is forced to accej3t less wages than for- 
merly. There can be no question but that higher protec- 
tion increases the price of manufactured commodities. It 
insures higher prices for the manufacturer in the home 
market^ but does not insure higher prices for either labor 
or the products of other industries. The home market 
consists of consumers who constitute the great body of the 
American people and pay the higher j)rices, notwithstand- 
ing Republicans are always insisting that foreigners pay the 
tariff tax. As we have stated before^ laborers in manufact- 
uring concerns should participate in the extra profits 
secured to the mill men by high protection. But laborers 
in those concerns should not deceive themselves into the 
vain belief that^ because their employers are reaping 
immense profits^ they will be permitted to share in them 
barely above starvation wages. Every time the tariff is 
raised the laborer, who is a consumer, must surrender a 
part of his wages to the owner in amount equal to the 
additional per cent, levied upon the goods which he pur- 
chases from protected concerns, for the reason that the law 
requires it. But there is no law or power which compels 
the mill owners to share their profits with their laborers, 
and, as a general rule, the more they are favored by dis- 
criminating legislation, the more rapacious and ungener- 







a 
w 




PC 




0. 

(X 


m 
< 
X 
o 



HARBISON'S ABMINISTBATION. 91 

ous they become. While the mill owners are protected, the 
working men must dispose of their labor in a free-trade 
market, and assist in protecting the owners, whether they 
obtain employment or not, for they must purchase the 
goods sold by the manufacturer. It is absolutely untrue 
that a jn'otective tariff increases the wages of those working 
in factories. But supposing it were true that they were 
benefited to some extent thereby, what effect would it have 
upon twenty times the number of laborers, consisting of 
mdsons, bricklayers, tailors, seamstresses, carpenters, black- 
smiths, roofers, plasterers, clerks, farm laborers and the like ? 
They pay the tariff tax, but what do they receive in return 
for the portion of their wages which they part with to help 
fill the pockets of wealthy capitalists. It seems that those 
who constitute the greater portion of our wage workers 
ought some day to wake up and possibly discover the fact 
that they have no rights, and are considered no better than 
a set of brutes and outlaws when the agents of protection- 
ists consider it necessary to levy tribute upon them for the 
benefit of an aristocracy. 

N'otwithstanding we have had thirty years of high tariff, 
during all that time bitterness of feeling has constantly in- 
creased between labor and capital. Strikes and lockouts, 
which were never before heard of, have constantly increased, 
resulting in bloodshed and in the destruction of millions of 
dollars worth of property. Laborers in protected concerns 
have striven, through organizations of their own, to wrench 
from their employers barely sufficient to feed and clothe them- 
selves and families, while the bosses have constantly grown 
strong, aggressive, and insolent. In view of all these things, 
how silly seems that simple expression ^^ Protection fills the 
dinner-pail.'^ 

It is said that labor is very poorly paid in Europe. This 
may be true. We know it is true that, in many instances, 
labor is very poorly paid in this country. Wherever labor 
is poorly paid it is not the fault of the laborer, but of his 



92 HARBISON'S ADMINISTBATION, 

employer, especially in highly protected concerns. There is 
no use in stating that wages are higher in the United States 
than in Europe for the reason that we maintain a high pro- 
tective tariff, for we have already shown that wages have 
always been higher here than in England or Europe, and 
given a satisfactory reason therefor, tariff or no tariff. Dur- 
ing the last two centuries we have had, not only free-trade, 
but every kind of a tariff from 7^ per cent, average in 1789 
to 60 per cent, average under the McKinley bill, and undeT 
all these changes, labor has been better paid than in Europe. 
To show that skilled labor in this country does not now 
have such an advantage over the same kind of labor in Eng- 
land, we here quote the testimony of two witnesses : 

On August 28, 1888, Mr. Jones Denby, of Lawrence, Mass., a native of 
Yorkshire, England, who came to this country but two or three years there- 
tofore, and was a skilled operative in woolen and worsted manufacturing, tes- 
tified before the Ford investigating committee as follows : 

"I find wages higher here than in England. My condition at present time 
is better than it was in England, but when I came to Abbott & Co. I Summed 
up what I had to live on, clothe my family, and other domestic things and 
articles used for months, 17 cents per day per head. My condition was better 
in England than when working for Abbott over here at the prices I then 
received. I was nice and comfortable in England. I found living cheaper 
there than here ; cheaper in the cost of flour. I could buy for my family a 
bag of 250 pounds of flour for 27 shillings. And the clothing was cheaper ; I 
never wore more than an $18 suit — the best suit I ever had, or that anybody 
would wish to have — and you buy the same suit here and you cannot get it 
under $35. In England sugar cost me 4 cents (per pound) and here it costs 
me 9 cents. And coal I could get there for $2.75 per ton, whereas wo have 
to give from $8 to $8.25 per ton here. So unless we get a good deal higher 
wages here than there we are worse ofl". Our wages, I consider, ought to be 
dou.ble all the way round to make them equal to what we get in England, be- 
cause the cost of living is nearly double as much here as there." 

Mr. George Foster, also of Lawrence, and a native of Yorkshire, who came 
over at the same time, and is a blacksmith by trade, testified on this point as 
follows : 

"I work at Lawrence and at the Washington mills. I get $2.25 per 
day. In England I received 8 shillings per day for ten hours. There I 
worked ten hours for five days, and five hours on the sixth day ; but in this 
country I have to work sixty hours, ten hours j)er day for six days. My 
daughters get better pay for work in the mills here than they did in England, 
but it is just about as much more as it costs them iu living and clothing. I 
consider my condition a little better here than it was there, but not much. 



BARRISON'S ADMINISTRATION. 93 

We live better on the Avhole over here, auci of course handle more money, 
but it costs us more in fuel, living and clothing than it did there. I ^vas sat- 
isfied in England until I saw the advertisements in the papers that I could 
do so much better here in America, and I thought I was going to improve 
myself, so I came." 

Much other testimony could easily be adduced to show that the benefits of 
the higher wages paid skilled laborers in this country over those paid in 
England is losi, by the increased expense of living caused by the high tariif 
in this country. 

What a wonderful relief the farmers and laboring men 
have had in Congress at the hands of Republicans during 
Harrison^s administration ! Is it possible that the j)eople 
are to be deceived and cajoled by the false promises and 
false pretenses which have so long been made at their 
expense ? Is it possible to believe that our farmers are so 
lacking in intelligence that they can be satisfied by an 
increase of the rates of duty on farm products^ when they 
kuow that they must sell their surplus wheat, corn and 
other products in a free market, and purchase their neces- 
saries of life in a market so highly protected ; and that, 
too, when the agricultural interests of the whole land are 
in a prostrated condition ; or tlmt the laboring men of the 
country are to be satisfied with the deceptive plea that high 
rates of duties increases their wages, when they know, by 
an every-day experience, that their labor goes into a free 
market, and their wives and children are suffering for the 
necessaries of life right under the very windows of their 
employers ? Is it not plain that the protection which farm- 
ers, mechanics and laborers most need is a reduction of the 
tariff upon articles they most need and do not produce ? 

The people at large have always been willing to stand 
reasonable taxation for legitimate public purposes ; but the 
disguise which is attempted to be thrown over the McKinley 
tariff law is a device which ought not to long deceive farmers, 
mechanics and laborers. 

Under the hypocritical solicitude of the Republican party 
for the welfare of the farmer, they have embodied in the 
McKinley bill a mock protection, thinking thereby to as- 



94 HARBISON'S ADMINISTRATION. 

fiuage the wrath and just indignation which is sure to be 
visited upon the authors of that iniquitous act. 

Official statistics show that in 1889 we imported 1^946 
bushels of wheat, aside from a very limited amount brought 
from Canada^, while we ex]3orted. 46,414,129 bushels, and 
the McKinley bill increases the rate of duty on wheat from 
20 to 25 cents per bushel, in order, it is supposed, to keep 
out the ly 946 bushels, without any reference to the fact that 
this small amount of imported wheat was needed as superior 
seed, and must cost them more per bushel than before. 
During the same year there was imported into the country 
2,388 bushels of seed-corn, while we exported 69,592,929 
bushels of corn ; but, notwithstanding the necessity for 
superior seed-corn, in attempting to exclude the importa- 
tion of 2,388 bushels of seed-corn, which the farmer should 
obtain as cheaply as possible, the McKinley bill places a 
tariff tax upon corn of 15 cents per bushel. The same 
year we imported only 16 bushels of rye, upon which is im- 
posed a tax of 10 cents per bushel, while we exported 
287,252 bushels. 

During the year 1889 we imported only 396 bushels of 
corn meal, but exported 312,186 bushels. During the same 
year we imported only 34,931 pounds of tallow, while we 
exported 77,844,555 pounds. Lard imports, 1,703 pounds, 
while the exports were 318,242, 990 pounds. Of beef, mutton 
and pork we imported 215,575 pounds, while we exported 286,- 
991,121 pounds. Of bacon and hams we imported only 272,- 
130 pounds, while we exported 400,224,646 pounds. Dried 
apples, imported none; exported 22,101,579 pounds. 
Exports of green apples were 300,000,000 bushels; 
imported none. Of wheat flour we imported only 1,155 
barrels, while we exported 9,374,803 barrels. Upon all the 
foregoing |)roducts a tariff tax has been placed for the pur- 
pose of excluding what little was imported, all to protect 
the farmers of this country. 

From the foregoing figures the farmer cannot help seeing 



HABEISON'S ABMINISTBATION. 95 

that he is not protected by this mock tax on the same class 
of products upon the sale of which he must rely for his 
prosperity and welfare. It is too ]3lain that foreign prod- 
ucts^ such as above enumerated, do not come in competion 
with the X)roducts of our farmers. Without such a compe- 
tition the farmer cannot be jDrotected by levying a tariff 
tax on the importation of agricultural products ; for it is a 
well known fact that such ^Droducts, except for some special 
purposes, more beneficial to our citizens free of duty, are 
never sold in our markets. 

In 1888, those who desired an equitable adjustment of our 
tariff schedules, made frequent mention of the fact that 
there was a gi'owing depression among the agricultural in- 
terests of the country, but which statements were contro- 
verted and absolutely denied by every Eepublican senator 
and representative in Congress. Even Eepresentative Fun- 
ston, of Kansas, while his constituents, for the want of a 
market, were burning their corn for fuel, declared that the 
farming interests of the country were not burdened or 
depressed. 

Such denials are untrue and out of place. The reality 
can no longer be ridiculed away, nor laughed down. The 
wail which for several years came from almost every farming 
section in the West cannot be mistaken or denied. The 
farmers are awakening to the solemn fact that they have 
been neglected and shamefully burdened with taxation for 
the benefit of favored classes. Many farmers disbelieved 
the measures of relief offered by the recommendations of 
President Cleveland, for the sole reason that he was a 
Democratic president, and looked for the higher prices 
which Eepublican platforms, Eepublican orators, and 
Eepublican newspapers promised them, and the profits 
they would reap thereby. But they were enveloped with 
clouds of woeful disappointment, and now wonder why 
it is that the banner which they carried during the 
last campaign, upon which was emblazoned the motto 



96 HARRISON^ S ADMINISTRATION. 

of the man from Maine, that '^ Protection fills the dinner- 
pail/^ has not benefited them by giving them a better 
market for their products. Instead of this, they find 
that their farms are mortgaged to eastern capitalists be- 
yond redemption, and the prices of their products in the 
market running lower and lower, except when assisted by a 
failure of crops in Europe. They find that the duties 
placed upon importations of agricultural products is a sham 
and a Eepublican fraud, an insult to them, and a disgrace 
to the nation in the eyes of foreign countries. Our farmers 
are beginning to comprehend that a feint at protection, 
where there is nothing to be protected against, is no pro- 
tection to them, and that an increase of tax on all the neces- 
saries of life, as shown by the table hereinbefore given, which 
forces them to pay enormous prices for all manufactured 
commodities, but which enables our manufacturers to go 
abroad, as they are now doing, and sell their products at a 
much lower price than to their own countrymen, outstrips 
all the frauds that was ever conjured up by rapacious 
thieves to rob their fellow-men. They see that such a sys- 
tem of taxation works in the opposite direction to protect- 
ing them. In other words, the farmers, the mechanics and 
laborers are the protectors, not the protected. The Eepub- 
lican farmer has been voting for years to increase the price 
of what he consumes, and to lower the price of his own 
products. He has been voting for higher taxes on the 
necessaries of life which he must purchase, without receiv- 
ing any reciprocal benefit therefor, and for the placing of 
stumbling blocks in the way of marketing his surplus prod- 
ucts. He has been voting for a high protective tariff, that 
our manufacturers might charge him what they pleased for 
their products, while he must take his chances in selling 
his surplus grain and other productions in whatever free 
market he might find. He has been voting away all oppor- 
tunities to exchange his products for the products of other 
countries, either manufactured or otherwise, which would 



HABBISON^S AB3lINISmATI0N. 97 

give the farmers a better opportunity to dispose of their 
$650,000;, 000 worth of snrpkis products at much better prices. 
He has, by his vote, so increased the tariff tax that for- 
eign commodities cannot be brought here, and consequently 
foreign countries must look elsewhere for opportunities to 
exchange their products for the wheat, corn, flour, beef, 
pork, and the like, that they need. For thirty years our 
tariff laws have been so arranged that our farmers have been 
compelled to pay the highest possible prices for most nec- 
essaries of life, and so as not to permit an exchange of their 
surplus products for those they need of other nations, and 
thus deprive themselves of remunerative prices. During this 
period the vast commerce of the seas has been surrendered 
to England and other countries, paupers multi|)lied beyond 
all calculation, and the farming classes, consisting of one- 
half of our population, are fast becoming impoverished, as 
evidenced by the appalling amount of mortgage indebted- 
ness upon their farms. 

Is it difficult to see how all this came about ? The day- 
was when farmers were heavy depositors in the banks of the 
country. Now they are hanging upon the other horn of 
the dilemma ; they are the heaviest borrawers in the land. 

It is certainly not difficult for the farmers to undestand 
the cause of the unfortunate condition of the agricultural 
interests of the country. The fact is that, while too high a 
tariff tax has been ^^laced upon imported commodities, thus 
placing serious obstructions in the channels through which 
the farmer must find an outlet for his surplus productions, 
the farmers have been for years j)arting with, not only the 
profits which they should have realized from the sales of 
their products, but have little by little yielded up a portion 
of their capital, that a few capitalists, owning the mines and 
mills in the country, might become immensely rich, and they 
become immensely poor. 

In proof of what we have asserted the citation of a few 
official statistics is all that is needed. We do not desire to 



98 HARBISON'S ADMINISTRATION. 

refer to the official reports of the State of Illinois, which 
show that the corn crop of that state for 1889 cost 110,000,000 
more than it would bring in the market, fearing that, as a last 
resort, the radicals of that state might deny the truth of the 
statement in order to avoid the force of an argument against 
an nfamous policy which they have so long supported and 
voted for ; but we will refer to statistics which show con- 
clusively who have parted with the boodle, and who are the 
fortunate individuals who have been the recipients of it. 

It is reliably shown from statistics that there are about 
18,500,000 of our population engaged in the various avoca- 
tions of life, and that about 9,000,000, or more than one- 
half are engaged in agricultural pursuits ; while, of this 
total number, there are about 2,000,000, including the own- 
ers and laborers, engaged in manufacturing. Now, in 1880, 
the farmers had invested in farms and in improvements for 
carrying on their avocation, the sum of 110,603,616,821. 
The value of the products from this amount of capital was 
$2,203,402,564. During the same year, the manufacturers 
had invested $2,790,272,606, the value of the products from 
which was $5,369,579,191. Here it is plain to be seen that 
the manufacturers had invested only about one-fourth of 
the capital which the farmers had invested, but the value 
of the products of the manufacturers was more than double 
that of the farmers. Thus, while the farmer has been com- 
pelled to sell his products for less than the cost of produc- 
tion, he has been protecting the manufacturers in paying 
the tariff on goods to the extent consumed by him, which 
has amounted to not less than 11,000,000,000 per annum, 
an amount nearly one-half the value of the total product 
from the capital invested by the farmers as above shown. 

The ruinous effects of a piratical tariff tax can be further 
shown from statistics. To be sure a home market is desira- 
ble, and should be provided for by a diversification of 
industry, but the farming class are the greatest producers. 



HARBISON'S ADMINISTRATION. 99 

and something more than a home market must be available 
to them. 

Diversification of labor is good ; it does furnisli a home raarket for a por- 
tion of the surplus of fiirru products ; but it is the demands of the foreign 
market to which the farmer must look with hopefulness for a generous reward 
for his toil. And when a liberal system of exchange of foreign manufactured 
products, which our farmers need and must have, is denied to them or re- 
stricted by a prohibitory or high tariff, they realize much less on their farm 
products in the foreign market because they have to be paid for in cash. 

From 1846 to 1861 a Democratic or revenue tariff was in operation, and 
from the latter date we have had a high protective or Republican tariff. A 
fair comparison of the effects of the two systems upon agriculture may be 
had by contrasting the value of farm and domestic animals during the decade 
from 1850 to 1860 with those from 1860 to 1870, and from 1870 to 1880. The 
following figures are ofiicial, being taken from the census of 1880 : 

The value of all the farms in the Uni*.ed States, as shown by the census of 
1850, was $3,271,575,426. In 1860 the value was $6,645,045,107. In 1870 the 
value was returned at $9,268,803,861, and in 1880 the value was estimated at 
$10,127,096,776. 

It follows from these figures that during the decade from 1850 to 1860 the 
rate of increase of the value of farms was more than 100 per cent. 

From 1860 to 1870 the rate of increase was less than 40 per cent.; and from 
1870 to 1880 the rate of increase in value was less than 9 per cent. 

It further appears that the value of all the live stock in the United States 
in 1850 was $544,180,586. In 1860 the value was $1,089,329,915. In 1870 the 
value was $1,525,276,547. 

In 1880 the value was returned at $1,500,464,609. 

The rate of increase from 1850 to 1860 was over 100 per cent. 

From 1860 to 1870 less than 40 per cent., and from 1870 to 1880 instead of 
an increase in the rate the total value declined more than $25,000,000. 

This shows that during the ten years from 1850 to 1860 the farmer owned 
more than one-half of the Avealth of the country, while in 1880 he owned only 
a fourth of the wealth. Under the Republican tariff", during the twenty years 
from 1860 to 1880, the half of the population not engaged in agricultui-e and 
deriving benefits from tariff provisions increased their aggregate wealth six- 
fold more than the farmers and agriculturists increased theirs. It was in the 
ratio- of 4 to 23, nearly sixfold. 

The McKinley bill increases, the rate of taxation, and 
consequently the condition of the farmer is transferred 
from bad to worse. In other words, the expense of those 
who do the protecting — the consumers, consisting princi- 
pally of farmers — is greatly increased, that the profits of 
the protected may be greater. 



100 HAHBISON'S ADMINISTBATION. 

We will give further facts and figures showing the fright- 
ful effects of too high a tariff tax upon the farming indus- 
tries of the country : 

Prior to the great civil war the aceuraiilatiorL and distribution of Tvealth 
had kept substantial pace with the increase of population, and, as the popu- 
lation, like " the star of empire, westward took its way," so did the distribution 
of wealth go hand in hand. Let us make a brief comparison of the condition 
of the farmer then and now. Then the farmers owned in round "numbers one- 
half of the entire wealth of the United States ; in 1880, after two decades of 
protection, thej owned in round numbers but one-fourth of that wealth; 
and while laying no claim to gifts of prophecy, I yet venture the prediction 
that the census of the present year will disclose the fact that although num- 
bering one-half of the entire population, they own less than- one-fifth of the 
wealth of the Eepublic. 

In 1860, after sixteen years of just and equal laws, the per capita wealth 
of each, citizen of the agricultural states was found to be $507, while the aver- 
age per capita in the manufacturing states was $529 ; in 1880 the startling dis- 
appearance of analogy was revealed in the statement of per capita wealth in the 
agricultural states of only $673, while the average in the manufacturing states 
had swelled to the utterly disproportionate figure of $1,353; in 1860, after a 
decade of equal taxation, the average wealth of each farmer had increased 
from $171 to $254, while from 1870 to 1880, under high tariff, the increase of 
wealth was only from $231 to ^241 per capita, showing an actual loss of $13 as 
compared with 1860. 

In other words, the increase of individual wealth among the farmers was 
eight times as great during low tariff as during high tariff. In 1860, after a 
decade of low tariff", the increase of the value of agricultural property 
amounted to $3,013,149,483, or 6.0 per cent, annually, whilafrom 1860 to 1880, 
the increase was but $4,123,558,377, or not quite 2^ per cent, annually. 

It is pertinent to observe in this connection that the increase of our popu- 
lation has been at a very rapid ratio, and that this ratio has far exceeded that 
of the increase of the individual wealth of all classes ; the average yearly 
increase of individual wealth during ten years of low tariff era having been 
$20.00 as against an annual increase of but $9.10 during the high tax period 
from 1870 to 1880. 

In 1850 the farmers sold abroad about one hundred and eight millions of 
agricultural products, which under the laws of reciprocal trade increased to an 
amount exceeding two hundred and fifty-six millions in ten years — a total-; 
increase of one hundred and forty-seven millions, or 136 percent, in ten years; 
while in 1880 the increase of the farmers' prodvicts sold in foreign markets 
was only two hundi'ed and seventy -five millions, or but 107 per cent, in twenty- 
nine years. These :^gures tell the story of restricted agricultural markets 
more eloquently than any words of mine could do, however carefully studied 
or chosen. They proclaim the necessity of the speedy abandonment of the 
utterly futile policy which attempts to sell in every market of the world and 
buy in none. 



i 



HARRISON'S ADMINISTRATION. 101 

Ten years of low tariff increased the wealth of the agricultural states 1G3 
pet cent., while twenty rears of high tariff showed an increase of but 127 per 
, cent. Then the population of the agricultural states was, in round numbers, 
20,000,000, and the per capita wealth $507, while in 1880 the population was, in 
round numbers. 35,000,000, and the average per capita Avcalth only $673. Then 
the West was the almost exclusive owner of its own wealth ; now the ownership 
of Western state and county bonds, Western telegraph lines, Western mining 
stocks. Western farm mortgages, and Western railroads is to be found in the 
"industrial states ; " then the center of population was substantially the cen- 
ter of wealth; now, although the center of population is but a few miles east 
of the city of St. Louis, the center of wealth is to be found in the states east 
of the Alleghanies ; then, the farmers were thrifty and prosperous, with a sur- 
plus to their credit in bank, while now they are dispirited, discouraged, and 
under the dominion of low prices and mortgaged indebtedness ; then farming 
was profitable ; there were no abandoned farms in Yermont, Xew Hampshire, 
and other Xew England states ; neither did mortgages vex the farmers of the 
West and exhaust their earnings ; then there was no enormous aggi-egation of 
wealth in the hands of the few, only two or three men among all the popula- 
tion of the United States being reckoned as millionaires, while now, under 
three decades of protection, wealth has aggregated to colossal proportions in 
the hands of corporations and individuals, and thousands of our citizens in 
favored industries can count their wealth by millions, whilst of all this vast 
number of millionaires not one of them is a farmer. 

For thirty years our farmers have been deprived of the 
benefits which should have accrued to them through a 
proper system of exchange of commodities with foreign 
nations, and the foregoing facts and figures carry with 
them the inevitable conclusion that our present abominable 
policy of taxation should be cast to the four winds, and a 
policy adopted which would cheapen the articles of neces- 
sity to the consumer, and permit an exchange of their 
surplus products for such commodities of other countries as 
are most needed. 

During the year 1888, notwithstanding the high tariff 
tax, our importations from Canada were 117,311,576, while 
we exported to Canada 821,582,836 worth of products, thus 
having the advantage of the exchange by 14,241,260. But 
the McKinley bill has struck a deadly blow at this exchange, 
to the disadvantage of every class of our industries ; for it is 
certain that whenever commerce is carried on between our- 
selves and other nations, it makes no difference how great 



102 HABBISON'S ADMINISTRATION. 

our importations are so long as our exports exceed our 
imports^ in wliich case we are positive that we have the 
advantage of the exchange. 

In 1888 we imported about $257,000,000 worth of raw 
materials which were used in our manufactories, and upon 
which the American manufacturers paid nearly 1100,000.000 
of tariff tax. Were this tax removed, could not our manu- 
facturers sell their products to the American people, who 
virtually consume all their commodities, for nearly one-half 
less than they now do, and defy foreign competition equally 
as well as under the present high tax on such raw materials ? 
The pro^^osition is self evident that the manufacturer could 
sell his goods for as much less as the cost of his materials 
would permit without changing his relation to the foreign 
manufacturer, or endangering his industry by foreign com- 
petition. While the manufacturer could not be injured by 
cheapening his materials, the consumer would be greatly 
relieved, and a healthier foreign trade, which would be sure 
to follow, would enhance the price of our agricultural prod- 
ucts abroad, and give the farmers a better price for their 
surplus. Cheaper goods, and a fair opportunity to dispose 
of their surplus productions, are the only avenues of escape 
for the farmers from the gloom that now shrouds their path- 
way. They are as much entitled to protection as the man- 
ufacturers, but legislative contrivances that rob them of 
their earnings for a few favored classes are no protection to 
them. 

From the statistics heretofore given, the fact cannot be 
denied that our farming industry is in a decaying condition, 
and the prime cause of such a state of things can be 
unerringly traced to the fact that it is being taxed to death. 
But when an honest attempt is made to reform the tariff, 
by reducing it within respectable limits, as the leaders of 
the Eepublican party have promised for twenty years past, 
that the burdens of our farmers and laboring men might be 
more easily borne, the false cry of free-trade is echoed 



HARRISON'S ADMINISTRATION. ' 103 

throughout the land as a play upon the cupidity and 
credulity of the masses. Both the Eepublican and Demo- 
cratic parties are protective parties. They only differ as to 
the method and measure of protection. The Democratic 
party has always supported a tariff, both for protection and 
for necessary revenud, but has never been in favor of a 
tariff so inequitable, unjust and discriminating as to result 
in closing our ports to foreign markets, in destroying our 
commerce upon the high seas, in building up and .encour- 
aging trusts, and in transferring all the property and 
wealth in the land, at no distant day, into the hands of a 
favored few. The Democratic party supported the first 
tariff law, which Avas passed in 1789, both as a protective 
and a revenue measure, but which was needed more for the 
purpose of revenue than for protection. The war of the 
revolution had but recently closed. The country was 
greatly in debt. In 1784, just at the close of the war, they 
found their industries paralyzed on account of the ravages 
of war. But Eepublicans in Congress, during Harrison^s 
administration, have referred to the period between 1784 
and 1790 to illustrate what direful effects absolute free- 
trade, which then existed, had upon the industries of the 
country. 

Eepresentative Payne, of New York, said in the House 
of Eepresentative, May 9th, 1890, '^'^ We have seen how from 
1784 to 1790, when we had free-trade, our imports ran up to 
an alarming figure, and our exports did not increase to 
any extent. ^^ 

This statement is not true, as the following table, show- 
ing our exports and imports from 1784 to 1790, inclusive, 
clearly proves: 



101 



HARBISON'S ADMINISTRATION, 



Teaks. 


Exports. 


Imports. 


1784 


£ 749,345 

893,594 

843,119 

893,637 

1,023,789 

1,050,198 

1,191,071 


£3,679,467 


1785 


2,308.023 


1786 


1,603.465 


1787 


2.009,111 


1788 


1,886,142 


1789 


2,525,298 


1790 


3,431,778 








Total 


£6,644,753 


£17 443 284 







It is apparent from this table that in 1784 our importa- 
tions far exceeded our exports. This was no wonder, owing 
to a long and tedious war which had just terminated. But 
this table shows that we imported less in 1790 than in 1784. 
It shows that during that period of five years our annual 
exports increased, considering all the circumstances sur- 
rounding that period, at a greater ratio than at any otjier 
period of our history. It shows that in 1788 our exports 
nearly equaled our imports, and no argument can be suc- 
cessfully produced which can controvert the fact that, had 
no tariff tax ever been levied upon importations, except for 
revenue purposes, our exports would have continued to in- 
crease at the same ratio over our imports until to-day, and' 
our farmers, not only have been the most wealthy class of I 
our citizens, but would now be masters of the commerce ' 
of the world. 

As we before stated, the first tariff law was passed in 1789, 
but it was no such a tariff law as now exists. The averagei 
tax was only 7-J- per cent., under which our manufacturing 
industries thrived, and our exportations steadily increased 
until 1824, wlien they were seriously checked by the adop- 
tion of a high tariff, a brief history of which, from that date 
to the present time, is found in the first chapter of this 
volume. 

It is strange how expert Eepublicans have been in fram- 
ing arguments in defense of our present war tariff. It is so 
easy for them to blow, now hot, and then cold. When the 



HARRISON'S ADMINISTRATION. 105 

farmers have a large yield, and cannot obtain the cost of 
production for their crops, they raise the cry of over pro- 
duction, as their home market theory has failed. When the 
farmers have succeeded in obtaining only one-half a crop 
from any cause, and prices range higher on that account, 
the higher prices are accredited to the high tariff. In the 
language of an able statesman, ^^If flood or frost, or adverse 
seasons, or other causes reduce the foreign yield, and hence 
the demand becomes imperative for our cereals, the result 
is, under the flexible logic of this system, accredited to pro- 
tection. The tariff at once becomes the guardian genius of 
the golden grain, before whose magic wand the valleys burst 
forth into singing, and all the hills clap their hands with 

joy." 

Some Republicans in Congress during Harrison^'s admin- 
istration have made brilliant arguments in the interest of 
the farmer, so far as the home market is concerned. Mr. 
Bliss said in the House on May 10th, 1890 : 

By fostering home manufactories I desire to see enough people withdrawn 
from the farms to become consumers of wheat to make up the 20 per cent, of 
our total product now exported. 

Is it possible that the people can eat more wheat when 
working in a factory than when laboring upon farms ? It 
would seem so from the statements of this eminent light. 
But he would have the settlement of our broad acres of 
public domain cease, and those, already occupied and cul- 
tivated, abandoned, in order that we have no more surplurj 
of farm products. From this view of the case it seems 
that it is a sin to produce more than we can consume, and 
unprofitable to exchange a surplus of the products of our 
soil for even the gold of other nations. When from drought 
or other causes our crops might fail, or come short of their 
ordinary yield, we must purchase the surplus of other 
countries, and pay therefor whatever price they may choose 
to demand. The 500,000 people who are landing annually 
upon our shores are to remain idle, or work for nothing in 



106 HARBISON'S ADMINISTRATION. 

■J 

the factories and mines ; for this eminent statesman would 
do away with that great source of self -labor opportunity 
which has^ for more than a century, maintained the prices 
of labor in this country above that of European nations. 

Strange as this position seems, it is pure and undefiled 
Republicanism. It has generally been supposed that what- 
ever tends to develop our fields, and give every citizen a 
start with an even race in the business of life, was the 
23roper thing; but such men as Mr. Bliss and his con- 
federates insist that the government should become the 
guardian of a few favored industries, by protecting them at 
the expense of others, and that the taxing power be so 
applied as to prevent this country, with its endless natural 
resources, one upon which nature has bestowed its greatest 
gifts, with endless acres and unsurpassed climate, with a 
population unexcelled in intelligence and skill, from pro- 
ducing any more wheat, corn, cotton, and other farm 
products, than is necessary for home consumption. Mr. 
Bliss went still further in the same speech, and said : 

While absorbed in this wild dream of foreign commerce the advocates of 
a revenue tariff either forget or willfully overlook the magnificent proportions 
of our own internal commerce. The figures, when studied, are bewildering. 

It is not true that the Democratic tariff reformers, called] 
advocates of a revenue tariff by Mr. Bliss, have either for- 
gotten, or willfully overlooked the magnificent proportions^ 
of our internal commerce. The fact is they are aware of; 
its extent and grandeur, and while they are absorbed ini 
contemplating the extent and magnitude of our internal 
commerce, they are further aware of the fact that Mr. Bliss 1 
and his confederates have ^'^ either forgotten or willfullyj 
overlooked the fact that for more than a century the states] 
in which this internal commerce exists have been clothedl 
with the attributes of sovereignty, and that during all that] 
time absolute free-trade has existed between them. Would] 
it be policy to change this system between the states ? Can 
it be denied that our great prosperity, both state andi 



HARRISON'S ADMINISTRATION. 107 

national, to a very great extent, is to be accounted for by 
this free commerce between the states, based upon supply 
and demand ? It is too plain that should each state, were 
it within its power to do so, adopt the narrow and con- 
tracted policy which would exclude it from a commerce 
with other states, compelling the producers of each state to 
look to their home market for a sale of their products, 
it would be detrimental, and probably ruinous, to the 
industries of all the states. And it is equally as plain that 
any governmental tariff policy which is so a^oplied as to con- 
stitute a Chinese Avail of exclusion, is inconsistent with that 
civilization which marks the present age, and detrimental 
to the prosperity and growth of any people who are afflicted 
with any such insidious rot. 

Any nation fortunate enough to secure a heritage in a 
land so rich in agricultural resources as ours, will have a 
home market in spite of abortive attempts on the part of 
demagogues to deceive the people into the belief that home 
markets must be created by law. A home market will 
naturally exist where enterprising people are found, and 
in our country the farming industry is capable of produc- 
ing far more than is necessary to supply that home market. 

It is said that the soil is the source of all wealth. If this 
is true, then our farming industry is far more important 
than all others combined, and should receive the greatest 
encouragement. But if the surplus products of that indus- 
try are not permitted to pass beyond our ports, in conse- 
quence of restrictive legislative enactments, what is to be- 
come of our surplus wheat, cotton, rye, beef, pork, lard, 
flour, corn and fruit ? Of these productions we have an 
increasing surplus, and if we refuse to trade with foreign 
nations, our surplus productions will be forced from their 
markets. If Republicans are determined to force our sur- 
plus productions of this character to remain at home and 
rot, and the industry which produces them is to be strangled 
to death for the benefit of a few wealthy owners of mills 



108 



HAEBISON'S ADMINISTRATION. 



and mines, it is high time that these destroyers of the til- 
lers of the soil should adopt one more old English idea, and 
levy a tax upon our exports of such products as England 
did on the exportations from Ireland, which swept the 
thriving industries of that once famous isle from the face 
of the earth. 

To show how much better oif the great mass of our peo- 
ple would have been under the provisions of the Mills bill^ 
in certain respects, than under the tariff laws which existec 
prior to the passage of the McKinley bill, we here quote 
table prepared by Eepresentative Stewart, of Georgia, to- 
gether with his remarks thereon : 



One cook-stove . . 
By Mills bill. 

One set crockery. 
By Mills bill. 



One set cheap glassware. 
By Mills bill 



One set cheap cutlery 
By Mills bill 



Two carpets, $12 and $15. 
By Mills bill 



Sugar 

By Mills bill. 

Molasses 

By Mills bill. 



Salt. 



By Mills bill. 



Two suits each for father and two sons, six 

suits, $14 

By Mills bill 



Two suits each for mother and two daugh- 
ters, six suits, $14 

By Mills bill 



Talue. 



$35 00 



$12 00 
$4 00 



$2 00 
$27 00 



$20 00 
$10 00 



$3 00 
$84 00 
$84 00 



Duty. 
Mills Bill. 



Per cent. 
47 = $16 45 
31 = 10 85 


55 = 
35 = 


$6 60 
4 20 


56 = 
41 = 


$2 24 
1 64 


50 = 
35 = 


$1 00 
70 


47 = 
30 = 


$12 00 
8 00 


60 = 
50 = 


$12 00 
10 00 


47 = 
35 = 


$4 70 
3 50 


40 = $1 20 
Free list. 


54 = 

45 = 


$45 36 
37 80 


82 == 
40 = 


$68 88 
33 60 



Net 
saving. 



$5 6fi 

2 d 
m 

3C 
4 0^ 
2 00 
1 20 
1 20 

7 56 

35 28 



HABEISON^S ADMtmSTItATtON. 



10^ 



Twelve pairs shoes, $2.50 each. 
By Mills bill 



Six wool hats, $1 each 
By Mills bill 



Six fur hats, $2.50 each 
By Mills bill 



Six ladies' hats, $3 each. 
By Mills bill 



Six bonnets for ladies, $3 each. 
By Mills bill 



Farming tools, including plows, gear, hand- 
saw, ax, draw-knife, chains, etc 

By Mills bill 



Medicines 

By Mills bill. 



Thread, needles, thimbles, scissors, etc. 
By Mills bill 



Four pairs blankets, $3 each. 
By Mills bill 



Two umbrellas, $2.50 each 
By Mills bill 



Cotton, hosiery, undershirts, etc. 
By Mills bill 



"Window glass . . . 
By Mills bill. 

Starch 

By Mills bilL 



Rice 



By Mills bill. 



Total cost under present tariff. 
Under Mills bill 



Yalue. 



$30 00 



$6 00 
$15 00 



$18 00 
$18 00 



$60 00 
$20 00 



$12 00 
$12 00 



$5 00 
$8 00 



$2 00 

$4 00 

$10 00 



$501 00 



Duty. 
Mills Bill. 



Per cent. 
30 = $9 00 
15 = 4 50 



73 = $4 38 
40 = 2 40 



40 



$7 80 
6 20 



70 = $12 60 
40 = 7 20 



70 = $12 60 
40 = 7 20 



47 
34 

*48 
30 

35 
20 

70 
40 

40 
30 

45 
30 

60 
43 

94 

47 

113 
100 



$28 20 
13 60 

$9 80 
6 00 

$4 20 
2 40 

$8 40 
4 80 

$2 00 

1 50 

$3 60 

2 40 

$1 20 
86 

$3 70 
1 88 

$11 30 
10 00 



.$189 27 
. 104 98 



Net 
saving. 



4 50 
1 98 
1 60 

5 40 
5 40 

14 60 
3 80 
1 80 
3 60 

50 
1 20 

34 
1 82 
1 30 

$84 29 



The foregoing is an estimate of necessary articles which a family in mod- 
erate circumstances would likely purchase in one year, from which it will 
appear that about $84 would be contributed as tariff taxes. Let us enlarge 
this calculation. By the census of 1880 there were in cultivation in the State 



llO JSAMMlSOJSt^S AnMlNISTRATiON. 

of Georgia 26,127,953 acres of land. If we allow 100 acres to each family of 
the character above referred to, it would give us 261,279 families, and if each 
family should purchase articles to the amount referred to in the foregoing 
table, and if there be a saving of $84.29 to each family, the saving to the peo- 
ple of Georgia alone under the Mills bill upon these few articles would be the 
enormous sum of $22,019,206,91. But it is said that the tariff does 
increase the wages of those working in manufactories ; but how does this 
benefit those who do not labor in factories? The bricklayers, carpenters, 
roofers, plasterers, common carriers, merchants and tradesmen — they com- 
pose the gi'eater part of our wage-workers. Have they no rights? Are they 
to be outlawed ? By what right are they to be disinherited ? Are they aliens 
or bastards in the sacred household of protection ? I submit their cases to the 
tender mercies of our protection friends. 

I submit another evidence that a protective tariff is not beneficial to the 
laboring man. For a number of years the country has had high protective 
tariff, and there has grown up between labor and capital an antagonism bitter 
and uncompromising. Never before in the history of the country has the 
relation between labor and capital, between the wage-worker and his 
employer, been so unsatisfactory. "We have had strikes and lockouts 
(amounting almost to revolution) which in the last six years have resulted in 
the loss of from fifty to sixty millions of dollars to the wage- workers. Prop- 
erty has been destroyed, and blood has been shed. Organizations have been 
formed, and so great has been the antagonism between the wage-worker and 
his employer that many have become alarmed, and have entertained fears 
about the perpetuation of our American institutions. 

How can this state of things be reconciled with the idea that a protective 
tariff is beneficial to the laboring man ? Is it not true in the protected indus- 
tries that large fortunes are accumulating in the hands of the employers, and 
that these millionaires are growing strong, aggressive and insolent, and are 
forming combinations or trusts, by which they have advanced the prices of 
many articles which are of absolute necessity, and the result is that the 
wage-workers have become distrustful ? In view of these facts, how can any 
reasoning mind claim that a protective tariff is beneficial to labor ? 

During Harrison^s administration, and prior thereto, 
Kepublican liigh-protectionists have constantly talked about 
the desires of the business men of the country, and have 
named the factory men, the banks, the capitalists, and the 
money-shavers as constituting the business men of the 
country. They entirely overlook the fact that the real 
business men of the country consist of the farmers, and all 
those who labor in connection with those industries from 
whence all wealth must flow. The others may be compara- 
tively denominated gamblers and speculators. This latter 
class is never much concerned whether the people are ever 



HAHmSON'S ADMINISTRATION. lU 

to do better than go continually in debt^ or what becomes 
of them in the light of moral worth. But .the mass of our 
people may not finally consent to be crushed to death 
morally and financially, by being overburdened wdth taxa- 
tion. There is a general feeling among the farmers that 
they are being destroyed. Complaints are made upon every 
hand, and they are well founded. Many of them begin to 
learn that high protection does not cause the nation, as a 
whole, to become rich ; but makes millionaires of the own- 
ers of a few protected concerns, while not one among the 
farmers is to be found in this wealthy list. The latter are 
taxed to death that the former may become the monarchs 
of the nation. 

It seems that the Republican party has waged a relentless 
war against the producing classes of this country. It 
is determined that trade and commerce shall not be toler- 
ated between the United States and foreign countries upon 
any basis which would result in the mutual welfare of all 
concerned. It is undeniable that Great Britain has hereto- 
fore been our great market for agricultural produce, and 
the McKinley bill is intended to exclude, as nearly as possi- 
ble, from our markets all commodities and materials which 
constitute a proper exchange for our grain, meat, cotton 
and fruit, and this it does without any regard to the injuri- 
ous effects of a law which absolutely excludes foreign com- 
modities, and which furnishes the life blood of combines 
and trusts ; and also without any regard for the fact that 
the tariff has been more than doubled upon many subjects 
of importation which are not and cannot be produced here. 
One illustration is sufficient to show the truth of our 
assertion. 

In 1889 we imported tin plate worth 121,002,209.15, 
upon which the people paid a tax of 17,279,459.72. Now 
this tin plate was paid for in wheat, cotton, tobacco, corn, 
flour, meat, lard, tallow, fruit and the like, products of the 
farmers and planters of this country. Is it not correct to 



112 HABBISON'S ABMINISTBATION. 

say that the annual tax of over 17^,000,000 paid upon the 
importation of tin plate was lost to the farmers of this 
country ? But under the McKinley bill the tax demanded 
upon tin plate is over 116,000,000, which amount per 
annum must be lost to the farmers of this country, 
whether the tax will amount to an exclusion of tin plate 
from our ports or not, for they must sell their products in 
foreign markets subject to the amount of tariff tax levied 
upon our importations. Should the tax amount to an 
exclusion of tin plate, then the farmers of the nation 
must absolutely lose a market to the amount of tariff tax, 
together with the value of the tin plate, or for the sale of 
over $37,000,000 worth of agricultural products. And this 
is the way the thing works all along the line. Too high a 
tax upon manufactured commodities seriously injures tlie 
farmer, while any tax at all upon raw materials, and 
especially upon those not produced here, is no less than 
robbery. 

It is idle for Blaine, or any of the leaders of the Eepub- 
lican party, to talk about reciprocity treaties with South 
American states, for the purpose of finding a market for 
our surplus grain and meat, for there is a natural reciproc- 
ity between our farmers and nations who desire to exchange 
tin plate and other commodities for agricultural products. 
Heretofore England, and other nations of Europe, have 
taken our surplus agricultural products, and when our com- 
merce with those nations is legislated out of existence, a 
market for the surplus of our farm products abroad is gone, 
and all relief for our depressed agricultural industries is 
gone also. 

What relief can reciprocity treaties with South American 
states offer to the decaying industry of our farmers as com- 
pared with a natural commerce between us and those 
nations who desire to purchase, for consumption, our 
surplus of farm products ? Where are we to find a market 
for from $600,000,000 to $700,000,000 worth which we have 



BABttISON'8 ADMINISTRATION. 113 

been annually sellings principally in Europe, though at a 
discount equal to the tariff tax which we have maintained 
on articles for which this surplus has been exchanged, if 
commerce with European nations is to be cut off ? Such a 
market cannot be found in South America. Most countries 
there are rich in agricultural resources, and the day is not 
far distant when they will have a large surplus for exporta- 
tion with which to compete with us in other markets. 
Even now we are importing hides and wool from there. 
Our exports to South America of breadstuffs do not amount 
to more than $5,500,000 annually, only about one-third the 
amount which is lost to our farming industry by the tariff 
tax on tin plate alone. 

The development of agriculture in the Argentine Republic, a near neigh- 
bor to Brazil, within a recent period, has been unparalleled. A few years-ago 
less than 100,000 acres were under cultivation; now over 7,000,000 acres are 
being farmed — 2,557,485 producing wheat. In 1885 this country exported 
wheat to the value of $3,139,736, while in 1887 the amount rose to $9,514,000. 
In 1888 the exportation of corn brought $5,444,464, while in 1889 the sales 
aggregated $12,977,721, Brazil taking of this amount $2,999,828. This country 
contains over 700,000,000 acres, and from the success attained in agriculture 
and her known area of fertile lands, our farmers may well dread the competi- 
tion of her fields, not only in the Brazilian markets, but in all the great grain 
markets of the world. 

This talk about reciprocity treaties with South American 
states is simply a blind and a Republican fraud. It is a 
scheme to deceive our farmers into the belief that they are 
to find an outlet in South America for their surplus produc- 
tions, while, in fact, the object is to benefit the manufact- 
urers, by assisting them in selling their commodities which 
they can export under the drawback system, which system 
relieves them of the tariff tax on the raw materials that en- 
ter into the manufacture of the goods exported by them. 
Reapers, mowers, plows, drills, and all kinds of agricultural 
tools and implements, so extensively manufactured in this 
country, are to be exported and sold in South American 
states, under the drawback system, at one-half what our 
farmers must pay for them, that the farmers of those states 



114 HARMISOJ^'S ABMimsmATlon. 

may the sooner compete with and deprive our farmers of 
the European market. And our farmers, after losing a 
market for their surplus, are to be compelled to continue 
paying high tariff prices for their tools, implements and 
all else. 

So sly and mysterious are the plans and movements of 
Kepublican leaders, that it takes some time and study to 
trace the stealthy steps of the Republican party through all 
its meanderings to deceive the people by false pretenses. 
The leaders of that party are aware that our farmers are 
being ruined by their tariff policy, and that our merchant 
marine has been swept away by the same policy. They now 
pretend to provide a remedy by subsidizing ship-owners to 
carry our goods to foreign markets ; or, in other words, to 
start out with our products to look for a foreign market. 
What relief will such a course bring to our farmers ? The 
people are to be heavily taxed to purchase and navigate 
ships for the benefit of ship-owners. What are these ships 
to do for return cargoes while a tariff tax, so high as to 
amount to an exclusion, remains upon imported goods* If 
we export agricultural products, we must import; for, 
whatever we export must, as a general rule, be exchanged 
for foreign products of some sort. Any duties imposed on 
importations must necessarily retard our commerce with 
other nations, and taxing the farmers, mechanics and 
laborers of this country heavily for the purpose of donating 
money to ship-owners, will not give the farmers any better 
market abroad for their products. It will increase their 
taxes for the benefit of somebody else, which seems to be 
the only kind of relief possible for the Republican party to 
provide for the people. 

Let us examine this scheme more closely, that we may be 
more certain who are to be benefited by it. Of course 
the American flag is a glorious looking thing when seen 
on the high seas, and we are anxious to see it flaunt to 
the breeze in every commercial port, far and near ; but if 



BAMtSON'S AmitmsmATlON. 115 

the peoj^le are to be taxed heavily for the purj)ose of pur- 
chasing ships, and hiring them to carry the flag, it may be- 
come a little monotonous to the taxpayers who are bound 
to pay the expenses. ^Ve said this scheme would increase 
the taxes of the farmers, mechanics and laborers for the 
benefit of somebody. They, themselves, will be injured to 
the extent of this extra tax, if they are not remunerated in 
some way. Will they be remunerated ? The tax collected 
is paid over to ship-owners, who receive it in the shape of 
what is called a subsidy. In other words, they are to be 
supported in a business which is unprofitable and cannot be 
carried on without donations from the taxpayers. This 
must be due to the fact that the tariff is so high that they 
cannot load their ships with our agricultural products, or 
other commodities, and exchange them for a return cargo of 
products, on account of the high tariff tax which they must 
pay before they can dispose of their cargo of importations. 
The farmers, therefore, must remain cooped up, and if they 
cannot sell their products in the home market, they must 
burn them, or let them rot. But is there not still a further 
design to this Republican scheme ? The farmers, mechan- 
ics and laborers cannot be benefited by it. We find that 
the ship-owners are benefited, for they are emjoloyed and 
paid out of public funds to engage in a mock pursuit. 
Somebody else ought to reajo some benefits from this myste- 
rious marine employment. What can the hired ship-owner 
carry away from our shores, and return empty, provided 
the government pays him the price for carrying a full cargo 
on his returning empty ? As we have before mentioned, in 
consequence of the drawback, the manufacturer is granted 
an outlet for his surplus, if he has any, after supplying 
home consumers at high tariff prices. He can sell his 
commodities abroad for much less than he can sell to home 
consumers, and if the government will only just pay the 
ship-owner for carrying a full cargo both ways, the manu- 
facturer saves that much. A magnificent scheme, indeed ! 



116 



ilABEISON'S ADMIN tSTUATlON. 



The farmer is securely cooj)ed up without any outlet. 
There is no market for his products in South America. 
He is favored with the privilege of buying what he needs 
from the manufacturer, at whatever price he sees fit to 
charge him, while the manufacturer is favored with a draw- 
back for exports. The subsidized ship-owner carries the 
commodities for the manufacturer, and the tariff taxpayers 
foot the bill for the carriage. It is an indirect way of 
increasing the profits of the manufacturers at the expense of 
the people, under the false pretense that it is all for the 
benefit of the tariff taxpayers. 

We are aware that Eepublican newspapers are continu- 
ally parading what they call ^''tariff pictures ^^ before their 
readers, for the purpose of convincing them that the 
McKinley bill is beneficial to the consumers. But those 
pictures are grossly misleading. Their principal object is 
to show that our manufacturers are turning out more com- 
modities than they did prior to the passage of the McKinley 
bill. It is but natural to suppose that when the Chinese 
wall of exclusion is made so impregnable that no articles 
of foreign manufacture can be admitted into our ports, our 
manufacturers will be monarchs of the home market for 
their productions. But how does this benefit the great 
mass of farmers, mechanics and laborers ? The often 
repeated fact still exists that, under such circumstances, 
the consumers are compelled to purchase all manufactured 
commodities, necessary for their use and comfort, from our 
manufacturers, at whatever price they may see fit to charge. 
The very object which the framers of the McKinley bill 
had in view was to enable our manufacturers to charge our 
home consumers more for their products, and to enable 
foreigners to obtain them cheaper than before. That they 
propose to sell their commodities at prices which foreign 
goods of the same quality can be purchased for, is not true, 
for, were such the case, a very moderate tax on the most 
necessary commodities would enable them to do so. 



HARBISON'S ADMINISTRATION. 117 

Whereas, they demand a tariff of nearly 100 per cent, 
aveiage upon such commodities. Compare the cost of 
fabrics manufactured abroad with those manufactured here 
and sold to our own citizens, and the difference will be 
found equal to the fraud intended, and can neither be 
laughed nor lied down. Competition among our manu- 
facturers never has nor never will constitute a remedy, for 
their concerns are few in number, and their rapacious greed 
will ever be equal to the opportunities which are granted 
them by law at the hands of their chosen law-makers. 

Year after year the advocates of high protection have 
promised that, in a short time, our manufacturers would be 
able to manufacture all the goods that were protected as 
chea23ly as they could be produced abroad, but, notwith- 
standing these promises, we find them, year after year, 
demanding more protection. These demands are, in sub- 
stance, a request on the part of the manufacturers that the 
government compel the people, by statutory enactment, not 
onl}'' to purchase their goods, but to pay the manufacturers 
higher prices for their commodities. So far as tin plate is 
concerned, we have no industry established which produces 
it in paying quantities, but we have a set of men some- 
where in the State of Pennsylvania who would like to 
engage in the manufacture of a sham which they call tin 
plate, and for their benefit Congress has compelled the 
people of the United States, by law, to pay %-h per cent, 
more per pound for the tin they consume than it is worth. 
It is not poor people, nor people of moderate means, that 
ask for the establishment of a sham tin-plate industry in 
this country, but it is asked for by a very few men who are 
possessed of millions of money, who promise to go into the 
sheet-iron tin-plate business, provided the people will pay 
them, out of their own pockets, by way of a tax on tin, 
from sixteen to twenty millions of dollars per annum. 

Such a course will not build up our commerce with for- 
eign nations, nor provide us with . an adequate merchant 



118 HABBISON'S ADMINISTBATION. 

marine. Tabular statements from one decade of our history 
to another tell the story that^ when the tariff on importa- 
tions was within the hounds of moderation, the balance of 
trade was never against us, and that a continuation of the 
war tariff from 1861 to the present time has destroyed our 
merchant marine, ruined our commerce, and brought gen- 
eral depression throughout the length and breadth of the 
land. 

Senator Frye, of Maine, seems to be the most persistent 
advocate of subsidies for ship-building. The State of Maine 
has always sent men to Congress for the purpose of advo- 
cating subsidies, and most of those representatives have been 
pretty well subsidized in return for their advocacy of that 
system. Both Blaine and Frye have persistently asserted 
that the supremacy in the carrying trade enjoyed to-day by 
Great Britain is due to subsidies. It seems that almost any 
school-boy ought to know better. Great Britain controls 
seven-tenths of all the carrying trade of the world, and all 
the ships subsidized by her are a few which carry the mails 
to her colonies, consisting of less than 1 per cent, of all her 
ocean transportation. It may be necessary for Great Britain 
to subsidize her mail lines, which are necessary to enable 
her to communicate with her colonies in every part of the 
world. But she could not subsidize her entire shipping in- 
terest if she desired to, and neither can we. The few 
ships subsidized by England are fast steamers for carrying 
the mails and passengers, principally, and has no percepti- 
ble effect upon her carrying trade, and has nothing to do 
with keeping up the balance of the shipping trade of the 
kingdom. Take away from Great Britain to-day the vessels 
which have never been subsidized and one-half the com- 
merce of the world would be stopped. It would wipe out 
99 per cent, of British tonnage. The necessity for such a 
service as that which England provides, by subsidizing 
a few fast-sailing steamers, does not exist in this country, 
and if it di(J it would have no perceptible effect in provid- 




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HABBISON'S ADMINISTBATION. 121 

ing for us such a merchant marine, nor such a commerce 
as a great country like ours should possess. 

When the United States contested successfully with Eng- 
land for the supremacy of the ocean we had no subsidies. 
Then, as we have before stated, we carried 87 per cent, of 
our commerce in American bottoms. The government was 
doing nothing then by way of giving a cent to any ship- 
owner or ship-builder. 

' ' How did we manage without pap from the government 
to go on until we had outstripped absolutely our great pro- 
genitor, Great Britain ?/' If we did then without subsi- 
dies why can we not do it now ? Have we deteriorated ? 
Have we lost all our vitality ? Have our magnificent re- 
sources failed us ? Is it true that all our boasted greatness 
is a myth ? 

Up to 1855 our carrying trade exceeded that of England. 
In 1849 England 'threw open its registry to all the vessels 
of the world, while Americans were neither allowed to ob- 
tain the necessary materials to construct iron ships, nor to 
buy them constructed, in other parts of the world. Since 
1855, therefore, our carrying trade has disappeared, and that 
of Great Britain has reached colossal proportions. This is 
due to the fact that this modern Republican party of prog- 
ress insists upon hanging on to ancient English traditions 
in regard to the exclusion of all foreign constructed vessels 
from the registry of the United States ; its determination to 
maintain tariff laws which prevent the obtaining of materi- 
als for ship-building, and the placing of too heavy restric- 
tions upon our trade with other countries. 

We have tried subsidies in many instances for the purpose 
of building ships and paying for their navigation, that we 
might recover our carrying trade, but they have been absolute 
failures in every instance. The records show that the gov- 
ernment has already paid out the sum of 121,000,000 for 
the purpose of subsidizing steamship lines — a sum of 
money which would purchase more than three times the 



122 HAEEISON'S ADMINISTRATION. 

number of steamsliips engaged in commerce that sail the 
American flag in every ocean in the world. This amount 
of money was absolutely thrown away. It did not place 
the American flag upon a single ship, nor bring back our 
commerce with foreign nations. On the contrary, its 
tendency was to diminish our . commerce and withdraw 
what little remnant of our flag there was upon the waters. 
By our high tariff laws we have destroyed our trade with 
Mexico. We built a railroad, at a cost of millions of dol- 
lars, down to the City of Mexico, hoping thereby to revive 
our trade with that country. That great road was opened up 
in 1884. The following table shows our exports to Mexico 
during the three years prior to the opening up of the 
railroad : 

1881 9, 200, 000 

1882 13,320,000 

1883 - 14,370,000 

And the following table shows our exports to that country 
during the five years after the opening up of the railroad : 

1884 $11,090,000 

1885 7,370,000 

1886 6,860,000 

1887 7,270,000 

1888 9,240,000 

These tables show that our trade has fallen ofl with 
Mexico since the railroad has been in operation ; and still 
Blaine, and Frye, and Harrison insist that the people of 
this country should buy and navigate ships for the benefit 
of monopolists, which cannot be built nor navigated by 
individuals on account of too high a tarifl-tax, which tax is 
imposed for the very benefit of those for whom they now 
ask the taxpayer to build and navigate ships. If the oper- 
ation of such a railroad from Mexico will not revive our 
commerce with that country, under our existing tariff laws, 
how can it be expected that steamships run to South 
American ports will revive our commerce with South 
American countries ? 



HARRISON'S ADMINISTRATION. ^ 123 

The proposition is not only that we make reciprocity 
treaties, but that we subsidize steamship lines at the same 
time. What do reciprocity treaties mean, except to either 
lower or remove the tariff on articles to which the treaties 
apply ? And when that is done, what need is there for subsi- 
dized ship-lines, provided we place the materials for building 
ships in reach of ship-builders, or permit those who desire 
to engage in the carrying trade upon the high seas to pur- 
chase or build ships where they can procure them for the 
least cost. A reciprocity treaty, whereby it is agreed be- 
tween two nations that the products of each shall be admitted 
free of dut}^, is no new discovery, neither does it correspond 
very well with the remarks of Senator Frye, the champion 
of ship subsidies, made October 24th, 1888, before the Home 
Market Club, in Boston, where he declared that he " wanted 
to see duties increased so that no manufactures of silk or of 
wool or of iron and steel could be imported."" And it has 
been understood to be the settled doctrine of the Rej)ubli- 
can party that importations from abroad should be discour- 
aged and prevented. But notwithstanding this, they seem 
to ask for free-trade with South American states, to be 
brought about by reciprocit}" treaties, and that, too, after 
'^ every section of the United States down to the most ob- 
scure township and remote hamlet has been flooded with 
literature to show that the home market was all that the 
people of this country Avanted ; that the foreign market 
amounted to nothing ; that no steps were to be taken that 
led away from the high protective system, and if j^ou in one 
single instance departed from the system, like the deadly 
crevasse upon the banks of the great Mississippi, there Avould 
be a deluge and a destruction indescribable to all material 
interests." Hoav consistent these jewels from Maine ! They 
know that a tariff law which comes Avithin the bounds of 
reason would revive our foreign commerce, and a proper 
regulation in regard to the raw materials necessary to build 
ships would result in restoring our merchant marine. But 



124 HABBISON'S ADMINISTRATION. 

they are owned by the manufacturing interests and persist- 
ently oppose all the measures which would remedy present 
evils. They reside in a section of country where they build, 
or desire to build, ships, and while the general policy advo- 
cated and supported by them renders that business unprofit- 
able, they will be suited if the government will not only 
build, but navigate their ships for them. 

Most of the applications for subsidies come from men 
engaged in the South American trade, and it is true that 
we have a far greater amount of transportation to South 
America than we have trade. There are thirty lines of 
steamers engaged in the trade between the United States 
and South American states, with a tonnage of over 165,771, 
nearly one-half of which is American. This is more 
than is needed for the carriage of the trade between 
Mexico, Central America, the West Indies, South America, 
and the United States, to which we exported in 1889 in 
value of products, all told, the sum of only 182,043,000. 
Trade must exist before it can be carried. It is therefore 
the very height of folly to build and navigate ships just for 
the purpose of seeing them sail from port to port carrying 
nothing but ballast at government expense. 

It is certainly strange to see Eepublican senators and 
representatives soberly and earnestly inquiring for the 
reasons which led to the destruction of our merchant marine. 
Blaine understands it, but is not willing to acknowledge it. 
He seems to be wonderfully taken up Avith reciprocity 
between the United States and the republics of South 
America, which means either free-trade or a great reduc- 
tion of duties upon certain articles and commodities cov- 
ered by such treaties. But why make such treaties with 
South American states only ? Eeciprocity treaties should 
be made with countries which buy the greatest amount of 
that which we have to sell. To do this we must expect to 
reduce the tariff upon such commodities as countries we 
trade with have to exchange for our products. We have 



HARBISON'S ADMINISTBATION. 125 

already alluded to the fact that South America is competing 
with us in the grain markets of Europe^ and they are also 
able to compete with us in the sale of meats in the European 
market ; for beef, of which they are large exporters, can be 
raised more cheaply in the Argentine Republic than any- 
where else. "Why not, then, make reciprocity treaties with 
those countries which purchase the great bulk of our sur- 
plus products, or so reduce the tariff as to cultivate an 
amicable trade with those countries. South America buys 
but a very small share of our exports, while we have been 
sending to Europe $600,000,000 or more per annum. 
England and other European countries only purchase from 
us what they are absolutely compelled to, owing to our high 
tariff on the imported products of those countries. They 
will seek opportunities to purchase their meat and bread- 
stuffs where the opportunites for exchange are more favora- 
ble ; for it is but natural that other countries should exclude 
the products of ours, if we exclude theirs. Why not, then, 
seek reciprocity treaties with countries which purchase our 
products, instead of putting up duties against them to the 
exclusion pitch, thereby repudiating their trade. 

In fact, there is no call for reciprocity treaties. A fairly 
regulated tariff, applicable to the importation of all com- 
modities, let them come from where they may, will insure 
the admission of our exports into foreign ports, and will 
insure a commerce with all nations, at least with all those 
Avhich it is to our interest to trade with. But our farmers 
are told, and the beef -raisers of the country are told, by our 
Republican sages and statesmen, who are the advocates of 
high protection, that they must not trade with" those 
countries where they find a market for their surplus prod- 
ucts. It is not market that they want. It is the need of 
steamships to carry agricultural implements from Uncle 
Sam's store to South America, and come back empty, under 
a subsidy. 

We stated that this scheme for reciprocity treaties is a 



126 HABBISON'S ADMINISTBATION. 

sham and a frauds and it is too true. It is not proposed by 
those treaties to reduce the tariff tax upon the hundreds of 
commodities manufactured in this country, and which con- 
sist of articles of prime necessity in every family. Theyj 
are to include some few articles or products of minor: 
importance only. Those great manufacturing concerns 
which have long combined to fleece the peo|)le, are noti 
thereby to be deprived of the right which they have! 
acquired to have the consumers of this country securely 
held by the strong arm of the government as the common 
prey of combines and trusts. 

This talk about reciprocity treaties is a blind and a fraud. 
It is an attempt on the part of Blaine and Harrison to carry 
water on both shoulders. It is an attempt to deceive those 
who are aware that our tariff taxes should be reduced, into, 
the belief that it is to be accomplished in some mysterious 
and roundabout way. It is all a pretense, and is intendedl 
to be used in the coming presidential campaign to bridgej 
a chasm over which son:ie Republican candidate can |)ossibly] 
cross into the presidential chair in 1892. Beware of it,] 
for it is a Republican fraud and falsehood. 

Our commerce with the outside world cannot be reclaimed 
and extended by a policy which prevents the exchange of 
commodities with other nations. Every restriction placed 
upon imports impedes our opportunities to export, and 
results in seriously injuring our agriculturists and shippers. 

Even Senator Sherman, in 1868, said : 

Eyeiy advancement toward a free exchange of commodities is an advance 
in civilization ; every obstruction to a free excliange is born of the same nar- 
row, despotic spirit which planted castles on the Rhine to plunder peaceful 
commerce ; every facility to a free exchange cheapens commodities, increases 
trade and population, and promotes civilization. 

What does the McKinley bill do but to lay a heavy hand 
upon our shipping, and restrict both importations and ex- 
portations, thus obstructing a free exchange, which Senator 
Sherman said, in 1868, was narrow and despotic, and founded 
in a spirit to plunder peaceful commerce. His position 



HABBISON'S ADMINISTBATION. 127 

then was that free exchange cheapened commodities and 
promoted civilization. Was he civilized then ? If so, he 
must now be a barbarian, for he has thrown the noble sen- 
timents which he then seemed to entertain to the four winds, 
and now advocates the opposite doctrine. 

In 1852 we believed in trading witli the outside world. 
Our belief in that direction was so strong that in March, 
1852, we sent a fleet to compel the Japanese, a great nation, 
numbering 35,000,000 people, to open their ports to the 
commerce of the world, which was accordingly done. " And 
now, should the Japanese station a fleet off San Francisco 
or Xew York to demand open, fair and unrestricted trade 
with us, in the name of civilization, what answer could we 
make to them that they might not have made to us ? " 

But now Eepublicans insist that we maintain a Chinese 
wall around this young and vigorous republic, and if they 
cannot make it wholly impervious, insist that it may be as 
nearly so as possible. If we cannot go back to the barbar- 
ism of China a thousand years ago, let us go back at least 
to the feudal ages when traflSc in almost every important 
commodity was a monopoly farmed out by the sovereign, 
and industry and commerce were alternately restricted and 
plundered under the tariff regulations of rulers extremely 
solicitous for their individual interests. 

A merchant marine, owned and navigated by Americans, 
would greatly facilitate our trade with foreign ports, but it 
is impossible for Americans to build ships and navigate 
them. Americans cannot build ships for the reason that 
the tariff is so high upon much of the raw material which 
must enter into their construction as to exclude the idea. 
And, were they able to construct ships, they could not nav- 
igate them profitably, for the reason that our excessively 
high tariff on imports prevents a free exchange of com- 
modities. Americans may buy foreign constructed ships, 
but they must sail into our ports under foreign colors, or 
forfeit them. 



128 HABBISOJSf'S ADMimSTBATION. 

It is futile to tell the farmer that the money in the treas- 
ury^ which was obtained by taxing him^ is to be given away 
to buy or build ships, and pay for their navigation ; for 
that, he plainly sees, only necessitates additional burdens 
upon him in the shape of taxation. It is idle to tell the 
farmer or laboring man that he is paying less for all he 
buys than ever before, for he knows that, were it not for 
the unjust tariff laws, he could purchase the necessaries of 
life far cheaper than he does now. It is useless to tell the 
farmer that he is better off than the pauper of Europe, for, 
after having disposed of his yearns crops, he finds that he 
has not realized enough to pay the expense of cultivating 
and growing them, and is unable even to pay the interest 
on the mortgage which blankets his farm. 

The farmer can glean much information from reading 
the testimony of Mr. Girard C. Brown, of Pennsylvania, 
before the United States Senate Finance Committee, as to 
the cause of the distressed state of his industry, as follows : 

The fact is prices are too low to yield a living profit, while taxes remain 
unreduced, and the expenses of living are disproportioned to the means of 
meeting them. 

The protective system has not, at least in the case of those farmers located 
near the great protected industries, resulted in the protection promised them, 
that of an ample and suflScient home market. Hence the loss of profit on 
their products followed by the loss of value of their farms, which, unless 
checked, must result in the loss of the farms themselves. 

Pennsylvania farmers are not alone " confronted with this condition." In 
New England the " dry-rot" is still worse. Lacking some of the advantages 
which enable us to still hold out, they sooner went to the wall. 

I quote from a recent report: " There are eight hundred and eighty-seven 
deserted farms in New Hampshire, with buildings on them in a fair state of 
repair, or that might easily be made fit for occupancy. This information has 
been received in reply to au official circular of the State commissioner of 
emigration making inquiry of the selectmen of one hundred and sixty towns. 
These deserted farms are in easy reach of the busy factories of Kew England. 
They have a home market, with its attractions, and are a sample of the way a 
home market enriches the husbandman." 

Further as to New Hampshire I cite another authority : ' ' Perhaps no better 
answer to the stock argument of the protectionists — that the farmer gains 
more from the local market made by manufacturing villages and towns than he 
ioses in the increased cost of the goods he buys — can be found than a statement 



HABBISON'S ABMINISTHATION. 129 

of the condition of some of the towns near those mannfactnring cities on the 
Merrimac river. The i[errimac tnrns more spindles than any other river in 
the "world. TVithin a few miles of each other, around the great bend of the 
river from south to east, are the cities of N'ashua, Lowell, Lawrence, and 
Haverhill. In the farming towns of "Windham, Pelham, and Hudson, ^N". H., 
situated within the bend, and so within easy access of all four of the above- 
named cities, wo ought to find prosperous ' protected ' farming. 

"On one main road from Lowell to "Windham, twelve miles, I count six 
deserted sets of farm buildings, besides several which have already gone to 
ruin. Fields and pastui-es are growing up to wood ; houses in which, a 
generation ago, sturdy manhood and womanhood flom-ished, are gone to utter 
ruin ; in many school districts there are not suflB.cient children to have a school. 
The whole appearance is one of poverty and decay ; to ride along our country 
roads is extremely depressing. In no part of Xew England with which I am 
acquainted is the decay of the farming interests so obvious and complete as 
here by the manufacturing cities. Instead of the homogeneous population of 
thrifty, intelligent, self-respecting farmers and mechanics that occupied this 
section fifty years ago, we now have, in our cities, a few fine streets of 
residences for the capitalists and employers, and in our ' French Acre,' ' Irish 
Acre, ' corporation boarding and tenement houses, and in our country a desert 

— for it is already nearly that. 

" Possibly this may be ' progress,' and a modern, improved kind of progress 

— one that has not been brought about by rude, natural causes, but one that 
results from the incomparable wisdom of our legislators, who are so kindly 
taxing us into wealth. Our farming interests would have suffered enough 
from the inevitable competition with more favored sections ; but the ruin has 
been precipitated by the tremendous burden of taxation that the farmer has 
borne. It is no small thing when a nation renders impossible the existence of 
a class that has been the source of so much energy, talent and character as 
have the Xew England farmers. " 

"While as to Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Xew York we do not have a 
similar official record, it will be noticed by the traveler that deserted farms are 
not unknown, and it is a fact that hundreds of farms can be purchased in 
those states for less than the cost of buildings, making the land practically 
free of cost to buyers. 

In Xew Jersey, Judge Forsyter, of Pemberton, says: " The farmers are 
not prosperous ; although they are all depending on a home market, they are 
all going behindhand." 

Mr. Edmund Cook testified at a late meeting of the state board of agricult- 
ure: ''The farms of Burlington county if put on the market to-day Avould 
not bring the cost of buildings and improvements, to say nothing of the 
land." 

In New York, State Assessor Wood says ' ' That in a few decades there will 
be few or none but tenant farmers in this state." 



130 HABBISON'S ADMINISmATlON. 

In Illinois the report of the Bureau of Labor Statistics for 1887 shotrs farni 
indebtedness — 

1870 $ 65,721,900 

1880 ; 103,525,237 

1887 123,733,098 

And states that "mortgage indebtedness of farmers for money borrowed 
has increased 23 per cent, since 1880, more than twice the increase of farm 
lands." 

From report of same bureau for the next year, 1888, I quote : 

" This table shows that there are 8,082,794 aci*es of Illinois land under 
thortgage, besides the mortgages on 237,336 lots and ou chattels. From sta- 
tistics oU the same page it appears thatthere were filed in the single year 1887 a 
total of 125,923 new mortgages for the immense suhL of $117,152,857, covering 
2,178,532 acres of land and 65,066 lots, as well as miscellaneous property oi' 
chattels to the value of $17,000,000. These figures of the new indebtedness fora 
single year are, it will be observed, more than one-fourth of the total mortgage 
indebtedness of the state, as estimated in the table quoted above. This fact 
shows that the estimated total is below the real amount, yet even the low esti- 
mate is startling. 

" The population of Illinois by the census of 1880 was 3,077,871. Say that 
is now 4,000,000, and divide that amount by five to arrive at the number of 
heads of families. We have thus 800,000, which is close to the real number, 
as the total Illinois vote of 1888 was 748,000. Averaging among these the 
total mortgage indebtedness, as estimated by the state administration, it 
makes a debt of $520 for every head of family in the state, while the new debt 
contracted in 1887 alone makes $146.25 for each head of family. 

" The condition of Kansas and other Western states is even worse." 

Another report places indebtedness represented by Western farm mortgages 
at $3,422,000,000, or $200 per capita for about 17,000,000 population. From 
Kansas a private letter from an old resident, who moved into the Neosho Yal- 
ley from Pennsylvania in 1866, a good, successful business man, says : 

"Times are close; never so bad before. Though blessed with good crops, 
we cannot sell for half what they are worth. During all the }^ears I have been 
here I never knew things so low. Corn is 15 cents per bushel ; oats, 10 cents ; 
wheat, 55 cents ; potatoes, 22 cents ; fat cows and heifers, 1^ cents on hoof; 
hay, $2 a ton; fifty bushels of corn for a plain overcoat. To sell twenty-five 
acres of corn, or 1,000 bushels, for $150, after hauling it ten miles, is a hard 
way to make money." 

But why multiply the "cloud of witnesses ? " No one denies the unfortu- 
nate condition of our finances, and no one can claim that the vaunted home 
market has materialized. It is proper for this committee to consider the facts, 
as they are about to consider the revision of a system under which this unfor- 
tunate condition has arisen. 

I do not come here with any panacea. I present admitted facts. They are 
stubborn. Other great and important interests, which, however, their warmest 
devotees will not vote as more important than agriculture, may claim that a 
protective tariff has benefited them ; it clearly has not us. They may assert it 



MAMilSdlSt^S ABMtNtStilATlon. 131 

iis necessaiy to their existence, that " it is the breath of life to their nostrils;" 
it does not seem to vitalize agriculture. 

Pf agriculture was as flouiishing as manufactures ought to be with 47 per 
cent, tariff, then, doubtless, they would be told this was the cause of their 
prosperity. How, then, can we resist the inference that it is a factor of our 
depression ? 

Now we hear the cry that agriculture must have the same protection as 
manufactures. Grant it ; how can we get it through a tariff? 

What will you favor with higher rates of duty ? How can you thus help 
the price of any of our great staples, when we produce them largely in excess 
of our needs and always have a surplus to sell abroad ? 

If we produce 450, 000,000 bushels of wheat and can consume but 325, 000,000, 
the remaining 125,000,000 must find another market or eventually rot here, and 
the price wheat sells for in that market delimits the market price of the much 
larger portion that we do use here. The present tariff of 20 cents a bushel 
does not affect the price, and were it twice 20 cents, or were it $20, it still 
would not increase it 1 cent a bushel. This illustration holds for the great 
staple products of our farms. 

As we can not help their producers by imposing a higher tariff, I do not see 
how we can aid them by giving more protection to sundry minor crops, mere 
specialties, of which the major part can only be produced in certain localities 
or under peculiar conditions. 

To do any real good to agriculture we must do that which will benefit the 
great majority, and not the small minority. 

As the present tariff does not solve this problem, as its increase since 1861 
has been accompanied by a decline of agricultural prosperity, it seems also to 
look in that direction for relief 

Mr. Brown very logically concludes. 

We might try the other way out of the dilemma and see what would be the 
result of reducing the tariff on those things which the farmer needs, but does 
not produce. 

Since you ask, what is my remedy ? I say, knock off the tariff for surplus. 
Give us a tariff which is not framed to pay a bounty to other interests at the 
expense of the farmers, who are the largest consumers and the heaviest tax- 
payers, which is limited to the needs of an honest, economical government, 
Jind which is levied as much as possible on the luxuries and as little as possi- 
ble on the necessaries of life. 

This is the kind of protection we need, and, I think, is about all the real 
protection you can give us. 

The tariff policy of the Republican party is artificial and 
unnatural. It is founded upon a false basis, and has bred 
an avarice on the part of those who have accumulated 
millions from its benefits, which knows no bounds. It is a 
scheme by which the people are taxed and pay out money 



132 MAnmsON'S ABMim^TUAflON. 

to keep out foreign goods, and then it becomes necessary 
for the people to be taxed and pay out money to send our 
exports abroad, aboard of subsidized ships, to look for a 
market. It is a scheme which involves in disaster and ruin 
those who toil around the base of its formation. It is a 
scheme by which it is falsely claimed that the country and 
its citizens can be benefited by increasing taxes. It is a 
scheme which resembles those of three centuries ago or 
more, when kings and courts and councils got together for 
the purpose of turning industry into channels that it would 
not naturally follow, for the benefit of a favored few. But 
our civilization is too far advanced to permit our course to 
be turned backward into ancient channels when centralized 
power interfered at every juncture with the daily life and 
daily business of the citizen. 

It is absolutely impossible, in a great agricultural country 
such as ours, to build up home markets which are capable 
of consuming all our agricultural products. Our fields are 
too broad and too fertile. Our farmers should have as free 
access to the markets of the world as circumstances will 
permit, as the sale of surplus agricultural products adds to 
the wealth of a nation a greater per cent, than any other 
class of productions. The freedom of outlets for such 
products should therefore be cultivated; for it is well 
known that the exclusion policy which we have adopted, 
not only induces, but forces a tendency on the part of 
nations to whom we have heretofore sold our surplus farm 
products, to seek for their supply of wheat, corn, pork, 
beef, fruit, cotton, and the like, in other portions of the 
world. When foreign countries are driven, by high tariff 
laws, to purchase those products somewhere else, what will 
become of us ? It will look rather hard to see millions of 
people destroyed that a few manufacturers of cotton and 
woolen goods, of agricultural implements, of counterfeit 
tin, glassware and iron, may become 'the owners of eight- 
tenths of all the property in this republic. 



HABmsON^S ADMINISTBATION. 133 

It is time, therefore, that the tax-ridden people of the 
United States shonkl cease to be influenced and controlled 
by the time-worn sophistry of demagogues, whose reason- 
ings are so utterly unfair and deceptive when they desire 
to burden the people that a few millionaires may draw untold 
millions more from their pockets. They usually j)lace the 
highest duties upon articles of prime necessity. To soothe 
the grumblings of the farmer or laboring man, they regale 
him with a calculation showing how small the additional ' 
tax is, under the McKinley bill, on a tin cup or a can of 
fruit, a pound of salt, or upon a lamp chimney. It is not 
the tax paid on the purchase of any single small article 
that will oppress the taxpayer, but it is the constant pur- 
chase of both small and larger articles, amounting to hun- 
dreds each year, which severely burdens the head of every 
family who is attempting to preserve the existence of himself 
and his dependents by tilling the soil or laboring for wages. 
Those who indulge in such reasonings are the stealthy 
agents of monopolists, whose only aim is to assist their 
masters in a refined and scientific mode of robbing the 
people of the nation. The amount of tariff tax demanded 
and paid in the purchase of any one of the articles just 
named is small, to be sure, -but it is demanded upon every 
necessary article, whether small or great, and the sum total 
is estimated, counting both the amount of the tax which 
goes into the treasury and that which finds its way into the 
pockets of the manufacturers by the grace of combines and 
trusts, to amount to the enormous sum of $1,000,000,000 
per annum. 

One cannot help thinking, after listening to the ranting 
declamations of Republicans, both in and out of Congress, 
against British capital, that they would refrain from being 
connected with it. Instead of this they seek and invite it, 
and divide the protected markets with British capitalists. 
Capital is granted immunity and shelter under our tariff 
laws, and if it continues, it will become the most corrupt 



134 HABBISON'S ABMINISTBATION. 

and tyrannical contrivance for evil ever known in any 
country. Foreign capital is taken into partnership with 
that of our wealthy protected classes^ which, through its 
ownership of stock in our manufacturing concerns, and 
while gathering enormous profits therefrom, even controls 
some of our largest establishments. Foreign capitalists find 
that such high protection is a great thing for ca|)italists, 
and if foreign capital is to continue to be allowed to shaVe 
the benefits drawn from the hard earnings of American 
farmers, mechanics and laboring men, it will soon result in 
the creation of a more dangerous enemy in our midst than 
the importation of tlie pauper labor of Europe. In the 
language of Senator Morgan, of Ohio : 

These are some of the beautiful harmonies of the home market, where the 
blue and the gold are blended in such striking effect, the American blue with 
the British gold. 

I would stop the sale of American fortunes through foreign adventurers, 
with daughters thrown in, for the titles of a corrupt nobility abroad, and 
would stop paying taxes, under the protection of a home market , to foreign 
investors, ground out of the poor of our own country. I would call off the 
hounds that our shoddy manufacturing aristocrats set on the trail of foreign 
counts and barons in those paper hunts for titles that are only celebrated in 
the herd books of tbe blooded aristocracy. 

Take the case of Andrew Carnegie, who makes his mil- 
lions here and has his royal palace in Scotland, where he 
drives his four-in-hand in elegant style, '^^and enjoys his 
summers in the balmy breezes of the hills of Scotland,^' 
and who, it is said, not long since was able to make a wed- 
ding present in England such as crown -heads could not 
have made. In an article written in a magazine a short 
time since, he took the position that it was dangerous to j^ay 
laborers too much wages in order that they might be virtu- 
ous, industrious and sober. We never supposed that such 
sentiments would ever be openly expressed by anybody ex- 
cept Eepublican secretaries of the United States treasury and 
high Republican officials who have, quite a number of times 
in the past, openly avowed that to make people virtuous and 
happy they should be taxed and starved to death for the 



HABBISON'S ADMnnSTRATION: 135 

benefit of such nabobs as Mr. Carnegie. A tax upon im- 
ported iron^ steel beams^, girders, joists, angles, channels, 
car trucks, and tlie like, of 114-fQ% per cent, heretofore, has 
made his fortune at the rate of thousands of dollars per day, 
none of which he has ever been willing to divide with his 
workmen. His fortune has been made by a transfer of the 
hard earnings of the American toilers to him by the opera- 
tion of our statute laws. Our commerce is gone, and Re- 
publicans say that it is because ships are made of iron and 
steel instead of wood. What an infamous excuse in the 
face and eyes of the fact that our iron ore beds are more 
extensive than any others, and our facilities for reducing 
those ores are unequaled. We could and would build iron 
ships and compete with the world in that line, were the tax 
on iron and steel reduced to a proper limit, and such man- 
ufacturers as Carnegie compelled to accept a reasonable 
profit on his productions. 

They say that protection has made this country enor- 
mously wealthy. But where is the wealth that protection 
has created.^ It is certainly not fairly divided. It is piled 
away in banks and great money centers by the beneficiaries 
of our tariff tax laws. Notwithstanding all our national 
advantages, we are fast approaching that condition of 
things which exists in European countries, where the few 
are enormously rich, and the many are blessed with abject 
poverty. Such a condition of things is very unjust, and is 
brought about, principally, by the privilege granted to 
capital by law to wage stealthily and incessantly a war 
against the rights and liberties of the loeople at large. 
Capital so favored, has no regard for the happiness and 
morals of the masses, its only aim being to create an 
impassable abyss between the few who are rich, and the 
many who are poor. In every age wealth has been corrupt, 
and has been the means of the overthrow of free institu- 
tions, and the establishment of despotisms upon their 
ruins. Capital calls for protection in times of peace, never 



136 HARBISON'S ABMINISTBATION. 

seeming to be satisfied with taking even chances with 
labor^ which may be denominated the producer of all 
things worth having. Then, when the aggressions of capital 
bring on a conflict with those which it has well nigh driven 
to the wall, capital calls for greater protection, and in the 
struggle which follows, liberty is smothered and despotism 
reigns supreme. Thus it is, that those who are continually 
supporting parties and policies which grant to capital the 
power to tax them to death, unconsciously destroy their 
material prosperity, and the liberty which they deemed 
they were protecting. 

To demonstrate how our high tariff laws operate in the 
distribution of wealth, it is only necessary to compare the 
increase of wealth in Massachusetts with several Western 
states between 1880 and 1890: 

The Massachusetts state report on manufacturers for 1891 shows that 
there are 20.000 persons employed in Massachusetts cotton factories at "under 
$5 a week," while the United States census shows that in the ten years since 
1880 the wealth of the state has increased $569,000,000. 

The only way to understand the meaning of such figures is by comparison, 
and this increase in the wealth of the wealthy class of Massachusetts can be 
understood better by comparing the figures for Massachusetts with those for 
Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Ohio and Wisconsin, which give a total increase in 
assessed property of $591,000,000 as against the increase of $569,000,000 for 
Massachusetts alone. 

When wo seek to find who has the money accumulated by Massachus.etts, 
we find that the factory operatives are living from "hand to mouth," and 
that Masachusetts farmers, becoming too poor to own their farms, are obliged 
to abandon them. The immense sums Massachusetts draws from the Western 
states are not distributed among the people of the state. They go to the 
beneficiaries of the Massachusetts tariff. 

It is not hard to trace the process by A^^hich Massachusetts forces money 
from the West. Take the case of an Iowa farmer in a good crop year when 
there is no famine in Europe. He has bought his supplies from Massachusetts 
during the year, and he will have to settle for them when he sells his crop. 
In selling to him Massachusetts is protected by a tariif averaging over 50 
cents on the dollar's worth. When he comes to sell his crop LEossaehusetts is 
still protected against him, for the same tariff prevents him from exchanging 
it for European goods, in which he could get 50 per cent, more than Massa- 
chusetts will pay. So, whether he buys or sells, Massachusetts is protected 
at his expense. 

With the price gf farm products cut down hj the laws preventing th^if 



HARBISON'S ADMINISTRATION. 137 

exchange with Europe and robbing them in so much of their exchange value, 
and with the price of Massachusetts goods increased by the same law, the 
"Western producer is robbed when he sells and when he buys. At this rate 
he is soon obliged to borrow money, and Massachusetts lends him at high 
interest what it has taken from him under the operations of the tariff. So 
the Western states go deeper into debt, and so the immense wealth they pro- 
duce every year enriches the Northeast, while all the West gets out of it is a 
bare living for its producers. 

Immense wealth has been created in this country, but it 
has been created at the expense of the bone and sinew of a 
brave and noble yeomanry, who never dreamt that an oli- 
garchy would ultimately fasten its poisonous fangs upon the 
body politic in such a manner as to be able to rob that yeo- 
manry of the rewards which its unceasing toil deserves. 
This wealthy oligarchy has selected the Senate of the 
United States as the branch of the government in which to 
intrench itself in order to carry on successfully their war of 
taxation, and it is evident that the Senate, which capital 
absolutely controls, and without the influence of which no 
man can become a member, is determined to see that the 
taxpayers do not escape from their cruel and unneccessary 
burdens. 

Every citizen knows that Congress should enact laws 
which are uniform, just and equal, and every citizen in the 
land who comprehends the use of the English language, is 
well aware that during the past twenty-five years Congress 
has been almost continually employed in divising schemes 
whereby capital could be benefited by all the taxes the peo- 
ple would stand. Every wealthy class has been legislated 
for and greatly benefited, while those classes whose means 
were small, consisting of farmers and all classes of laborers, 
have been taxed and neglected. The eloquent words of 
Andrew Jackson should still have some force. He said : 

It is not in a splendid government, supported by powerful monopolies and 
aristocratical establishments, that they will find happiness or their liberties' 
protection, but in a plain system, void of pomp, protecting all and granting 
faJTors to none, dispensing its blessings like the dews of Heaven, unseen and 
unfelt, save in the freshness and beauty they contribute to produce. 

Jt is such a government that the genius of our people reqmres, such a Q^e 



138 HABBISON'S ADMINISTRATION. 

only under wMcb our states may remain, for ages to come, united, prosperous 
and free. 

And those of Justice Miller in rendering a decision in the 
United States Supreme Court, who recently said: 

To lay with one liand the power of the government on the property of a 
citizen, and with the other bestow it upon favored individuals, to aid private 
enterprises and build up private fortunes, is none the less robbery because it 
is done under forms of law and is called taxation. This is not legislation ; it 
is a decree under legislative forms. Nor is it taxation. * * * Beyond a 
cavil there can be no lawful taxation which is not laid for public purposes. 

The most noble step which has been taken for thirty years 
in the proper direction indicated by the eminent men who 
gave utterance to the foregoing sentiments, was by Grover 
Cleveland, backed by the Democratic party. A noble 
attempt was made to legislate in the interest of an unfor- 
tunate, yet meritorious class, consisting of our farmers and 
laboring men, a class which, as time advances, finds it more 
difficult, year by year, to make a livelihood and retain their 
little stock in trade, if they have any. It was an attempt 
to check the monopolistic powers with which Congress has 
so long clothed capital, and which has seized upon the neces- 
sities of the people as a fruitful source of speculation. But 
the bill which would have granted the needed relief was 
driven back from the doors of the Senate by capitalistic 
dragons, placed there for the- purpose of protecting capital 
and robbing labor. 

Why is it that the industries of this young, vigorous and 
enterprising republic are so depressed after thirty years of 
high protection ? Is there any reason to doubt that, in the 
natural course of things, it could be anything else but healthy 
and vigorous ? It is evident that every industry would 
naturally be prosperous if let alone. The cause of all our 
complaints and disorders is directly traceable to our iniqui- 
tous tariff laws. 

We have none of the obstacles to natural progress that stand in the way 
of the governments of the old world. Wo have no hereditary monarchy; no 
titular nobility ; no families that inherit the wealth and honors of the state. 
Wo have a hemisphere with a people phenomenally bold, aggressive and intel- 




ARTHUR P. GORMAN. 

Permission of Chicago Times. 



HARRISON'S ADMINISTRATION. 141 

lectual. We have a variety of climate and soil and production iinequaled 
upon the face of the earth. If this system (of tariff) be an adjunct to pros- 
perity, here, of all the countries in the world, we should have to-day univer- 
sal prosperity in every state, in every interest, in every class. 

The protective tariff is taken from sugar. Do not pro- 
tectionists stultify themselves here ? Does a bounty pro- 
tect the sugar-grower against the pauj)er labor of Europe 
and against the cheaper article from abroad ? It does 
seem that this sugar bounty scheme strijos the veil from the 
objects and aims of Eepublican protectionists. • The Mc- 
Kinley bill refuses to protect our great sugar industry, and 
to apply thereto this boasted Eepublican j^rinciple. Is this 
in accordance with the declarations made in the Chicago 
platform which nominated Benjamin Harrison ? They 
there declared that the internal revenue system should be 
destroyed '^'^ rather than to surrender up any part of the 
pT-otective system/^ Is this course pursued in relation to 
the sugar industry for the reason that it is principally con- 
fined to the Southern states ? This must certainly be the 
case, for no other conclusion can be reached. Eepublicans, 
in prosecuting their relentless war upon the South, have 
allowed their sectional prejudices to enter into their formu- 
lation of the tariff laws, and have struck a deadly blow at 
the sugar-growers, which cannot be excused or justified 
upon any grounds. 

The attempt was made to justify such a course toAvard 
sugar by asserting that they had provided a bounty for 
sugar, and that sugar was therefore protected. But Ee- 
publicans cannot hide their hypocrisy and demagogism 
by any such simple statements. They are too gauzy. A 
bounty protection is no protection to the sugar industry. 
It allows foreign sugar to come in and flood our markets 
without any remuneration to the government, and without 
any regard to the question whether our sugar producers 
ever find a market for their product or not. The producer 
may receive a bounty of two cents per pound for what 



142 HABBISON'S ADMINISTRATION. 

sugar he produces^ but the principle of protection is 
removed^ and his industry is degraded. 

The framers of this tariff law attempt to excuse their 
course toward sugar by claiming that we do not produce 
sugar ^'^to the extent of our wants." It does seem here, 
thao they were more ^^ concerned about the prices of the 
articles we consume"^ than they were ^^to encourage a 
system of home production.'^ They desired to cheapen 
sugar at the expense of protection. The Democratic party 
would cheapen articles to the consumers wherever it can 
be done without injury to established and remunerative 
industries ; but has never proposed to tear down any one 
industry for the purpose of slightly cheapening the class of 
commodities produced by it ; much less, after so doing, has 
that party ever proposed to ruin one industry, by leaving it 
unprotected, and at the same time raised the price of 
articles, that some one or more industries might receive 
greater protection. This is just what the Republican party 
has done during Harrison^s administration. They have left 
sugar unprotected, and given other industries greater pro- 
tection. What they have undertaken to save the consumer 
in the purchase of sugar, they have greatly overbalanced by 
placing a higher tax upon everything else he must purchase. 

There is no more reason why sugar should be made free 
and a bounty paid upon its production, than that many 
other commodities should be admitted free and a bounty be 
paid to our home producers. If the object is to cheapen 
sugar regardless of protection, why not apply a bounty to 
tin plate. "We do not produce any tin, and consequently have 
no such industry to protect; but the McKinley bill has 
greatly increased the tax on tin plate which the consumer 
must pay. The removal of an unjust tax on tin plate, 
which protects nobody, would greatly relieve our consumers, 
and a bounty placed on its production would not cost the 
government much, for such an industry is, as yet, unborn. 
Why not apply the bounty to wool, if the object is to 



1 



HARRISON'S ADMINISTRATION. 143 

cheapen the cost of clothing to consumers? We do not 
produce wool to the extent of our wants. According to the 
report of the committee which reported this bill^ we 
produced, in 1889, 245,000,000 pounds of wool, which was 
less than one-half of what we need for home consum]3tion. 
The removal of the duty now paid on over 350,000,000 
pounds of imported wool would cheapen clothing for our 
millions. The bounty could be applied to linen goods, 
which we do not produce at all, and save both bounty and 
tariff-tax to the people. In admitting sugar free the gov- 
ernment loses about $56,000,000 of revenue, besides, it must 
reach down into the treasury vaults and pull out from $15,- 
000,000 to $20,000,000 more annually to pay a bounty upon 
an absolutely unprotected industry. How much better the 
provisions of the Mills^ bill would have been, which reduced 
the tax on sugar to something near a proper standard. 
That bill did not proj)ose to strike down some industries, 
and increase the burdens of the people for the benefit of a 
few favored monopolists. The McKinley bill leaves, not 
only the sugar producers in the South unprotected, but 
leaves the glucose factories unprotected also. These factor- 
ies are located in those regions where corn is the most 
plentiful, and have over $12,000,000 of capital invested, 
with a capacity for consuming over 20,000,000 bushels of 
corn per annum, and capable of producing over 600,000,000 
pounds of glucose annually, and the bounty system, when 
applied to them, pauperizes the industry and leaves it 
unprotected, as it would any industry to which it might 
be applied. 

This latest tariff law, so far as sugar is concerned, is one 
of the most glaring frauds that was ever perpetrated upon 
the American people. The Eepublican party has the audac- 
ity to presume that the consumers of this country are so 
ignorant and short-sighted that they cannot comprehend the 
fact that, when a revenue, amounting to the sum of $56,- 
000,000, formerly collected as duty on sugar, is removed 



144 HABBISON'S ADMINISTBATION. 

therefrom, and transferred by way of increased duty to other 
articles of necessity, so as to amount to an additional tax of 
165,000,000 thereon, to be paid by them in its stead, in- 
creases the burden of their taxation, notwithstanding they 
have free sugar. This tariff tax must be paid, and it is too 
plain that removing the tax from any one class of articles, 
so as to cause the tax to average still higher, creates an ine- 
quality which did not exist before, and increases taxation 
unnecessarily. In other words, the peojDle are to have free 
sugar, which formerly yielded the government 156,000,000 
revenue duty, and this amount of revenue is to be made up 
by an increased tariff tax on cutlery, table and glassware, all 
kinds of articles manufactured from tin, window glass, lamp 
chimneys, carpenters' and blacksmiths' tools, farm imple- 
ments, all kinds of dress goods, hats, blankets, and on almost 
everything which can be named as a common necessity 
among the people. What a wonderful relief this is to a tax- 
ridden people. Not only must the tax lost, in consequence 
of making sugar free, be made up by imposing the same 
amount, or more, of tariff tax on other articles which the 
people must purchase, but the people must be taxed to pay 
the bounty, and also be taxed to support an innumerable lot 
of overseers and inspectors, who must be appointed as inter- 
nal revenue officers to manage the affairs of the sugar men. 
This legislation concerning sugar is purely sectional, and 
never would have taken place had that industry existed in 
the IN'orth instead of the South. It was done under the 
pretense that the people want free sugar, as before stated ; 
but it is plain that the people need many other things 
cheap which cost them far more than sugar. Sugar is a 
necessity in one sense, but in another sense it is a luxury ; 
while boots, shoes, clothing, hats, caps, blankets and the 
like are necessaries which all the people must have. It is 
estimated that the relief granted the people by taking the 
tax from sugar is less than 90 cents to the individual. It is 
evident the tax paid per capita on either boots, shoes or 



BAMBISON'S ADMlMSTBATlOK. 145 

hats alone, saying nothing about clothing and a large num- 
ber of other articles upon which the tax ranges from 35 to 
125 per cent., amount to far more than 90 cents for each 
individual in the United States. Why was not the tax 
reduced upon some of these necessaries of life, and some 
protection left to the sugar industry in the South ? It is 
very evident that the McKinley bill has in view the sup- 
pression of Southern industries, which are to be sacrificed 
for the benefit of the manufacturing interests of New Eng- 
land, and an attempt is now made to cause the American 
people to believe that their burdens of taxation have been 
removed to the extent of the reduction on sugar, while, in 
fact, the tax has been increased on other necessaries of life 
to an extent greatly overbalancing the tax they formerly 
paid on sugar, and for the purpose of paying the bounty in 
addition thereto provided for by the McKinley bill. If the 
American people have gone crazy they will fail to discover 
this infamous fraud which has been perpetrated through a 
spirit of madness, avarice and oppression on the part of a 
tyrannical majority in Congress. 

It is quite clear that the farming and laboring people 
need far more protection from Shylocks and money- 
mongers at home than from any other unseemly beast 
that has ever confronted them. At one time the land was 
filled with small industries which, from the very nature of 
things, could not be combined. But the high tariff wall 
which has so long stood up around us for the purpose of 
preventing trade and commerce with other nations, has 
been the means of causing our factory kings to become 
incredibly rich, and, through their powerful combinations, 
or trusts, which this high tariff wall has fostered and pro- 
tected, have overawed and wiped out of existence nearly all 
the small industries which formerly distributed wealth with 
fairness and equality among the people. Congress, during 
Harrison's administration, under the pretense that legisla- 
tion providing for fines and penalties in cases of combines or 



146 HAMISON^S AJ^MimSfRATiO^. 

trusts would annihilate tlieni;, passed a mock act pretend- 
ing to suppress trusts. It is somewhat curious that Repub- 
licans should have thought of striking a blow at trusts, 
with even this straw club, after the greatest of them all had 
declared that trusts are ^^ private affairs with which the 
public has no concern/' Every Republican protectionist 
well knows that no legislation against trusts can be of any 
efficacy, except it be directed at the very root of the evil; 
and, as a high protective tariff is the very life-blood of those 
establishments, the only remedy is to so reduce the tariff 
that competition from abroad may work their destruction, 
which would surely be the result. Instead of this, they 
have more safely fortified the trusts, by increasing the 
tariff tax upon all subjects thereof. The following is a list 
showing most of the trusts, and the tax which existed for their 
protection prior to the passage of the McRinley bill. 

Average tax 
per cent. 

Earthenware trust 56 

Glassware trust 62 

Plow Steel trust 45 

Bessemer Steel trust 45 

General Steel trust 45 

Nail trust 45 

General Iron trust 45 

Copper trust 25 

Lime trust 52 

Tin trust 32 

Lead trust 74 

Glass trust 55 

Soap trust 26 

Linseed Oil trust 34 

Rubber Shoe trust 25 

Castor Oil trust 1.94 

Envelope trust 25 

Barbed Wire trust CO 

Paper Bags trust 35 

Cordage trust 25 

Salt trust .80 

Jute Bagging trust 54 

Lead Pencil trust 30 

Oil Cloth trust ' .40 

Borax trust, per 100 pounds , 5.00 



BAKRISON'S ADMINISTBATION. 147 

The McKinley bill increases the tariff tax for the benefit 
of these trusts 20 per cent., if not more. It is estimated 
that the people pay at least one billion per annum of tariff 
tax, most of which goes directly into the hands of the 
owners of protected concerns. Before this increase of tariff 
tax, the capital controlled by the trusts possessed sufficient 
power for unlimited expansion and absorption. Many indi- 
viduals and firms had gone down in their attempts to with- 
stand the pressure of their united power, and it is strange 
that people haye allowed laws to remain so long upon our 
statute books which permits such monopolies to exist, 
much less to permit an increase of their opportunities to 
plunder the masses. Instead of undoing the wrongs that 
have so long existed, the McKinley bill increases those 
wrongs, and its advocates justify their course by all sorts of 
sophistry and false argument. The fact is, monopolists 
only have to apply to any Congress, controlled by Repub- 
licans, to obtain all they ask for. 



CHAPTER III. 

HAKKISOiq-'s ADKIKISTRATIOK, THE ELECTIOK BILL, AKD 

OTHER QUESTIONS. 

BUT the most barefaced, iniquitous and outrageous attempt 
at legislation ever made in our republic, or in any 
other country where people possess a semblance of lib- 
erty, is the attempt on the part of the Republican party to 
pass, during the fifty-first Congress, the bill to amend and 
supplant the election laws of the United States, commonly 
known as the Federal Election Bill, in pursuance of the 
recommendation of President Harrison.* 

What were the provisions of that bill ? Many enlightened 
citizens were overcome with astonishment as they contem- 
plated the solemn fact that during the year 1890 a political 
organization, a great political party in this republic, within 
one hundred years after its successful establishment, at- 
tempted to enact a law which would virtually have declared 
to the world that the people of this country have not the in- 
telligence nor virtue which entitles them to continue to ex- 
ercise that high prerogative of freemen under an established 
system which has been in operation since the foundation of 
the government. A law which would have converted this 
republic into a despotism ; a law which would have been 
absolutely partisan in its nature, and which was intended 
for no other earthly purpose than to perpetuate the power 
and control of a Republican moneyed oligarchy. 

The Republican party has recently come to the conclusion 

that it has not an eternal leasehold right to the reins of this 

government, and thereby to rob the people without limit, 

so long as that time-honored system of voting and 

148 



THE ELECTION BILL. 149 

returns, through which the people have heretofore expressed 
their will, remains in existence. Therefore, the leaders of 
that party, on seeing the tide begin to roll against them in 
such monstrous proportions as to deprive them of all power 
to injure the Republic, if not to bury their ignoble organi- 
zation in eternal oblivion, in consequence of their audacious 
and unscrupulous conduct already exhibited during the 
fifty-first Congress, sought, while they yet had the absolute 
control, as they imagined, to fortify themselves against the 
wishes and will of the people by the enactment of a law 
which would revolutionize a system of voting, through, and 
by means of which, the people have heretofore exercised their 
sovereign rights, embodying their power at will to change 
the policy of their government by the election of other 
agents through whom that will should be enforced. The 
Republican party has had the control of the government so 
long that its leaders have concluded that they have an abso- 
lute right to use any means, however corrupt and unrepub- 
lican they may be, to perpetuate their power. They imagine 
that their pretended loyalty entitles them to the indorse- 
ment and support of the people, no matter to what extent 
they repudiate the principles of the founders of the party, 
no matter what unjust burdens they impose upon the peo- 
ple, no matter to what extent the leaders of the Republi- 
can party are constituted, by law, the sovereigns instead of 
the people, or to what extent they may undermine the 
fundamental principles upon which the government was 
founded. The leaders of that party have formed a partner- 
ship with the manufacturers, and other manipulators of 
public funds, seemingly for the purpose of running this 
government as a business, or trade, for their own benefit, 
regardless of the fact that officials are only the agents of 
the people for whose interest and benefit the different 
departments of the government should be managed. 

This bill provided that an officer, called a chief supervisor 
of elections, was to be appointed in each United States 



150 THE ELECTION BILL. 

judicial district by the judge of the circuit court of such 
district. This officer was to be- required, upon a peti- 
tion of one hundred citizens of any city or town having 
a population of 20,000 inhabitants, or of fifty citizens of 
any county or parish, to prepare, present, and certify to 
the circuit courts, aforesaid, lists of |)ersons to be appointed 
supervisors, three of whom were to be selected and appointed 
for each voting precint, two of whom were to be selected 
from the same political party. These precint supervisors 
were to be, at all times, subject to the order of the chief, or 
district supervisor, who was to have the power to assign 
them to duty in any place within his district he pleased. 
All registration and naturalization of voters, as well as 
the elections, were to be guarded, scrutinized, and 
supervised by them. Each chief supervisor, in cities and 
towns having 20,000 inhabitants and upward, was to have 
the power to order the precinct supervisors to make a list of 
all persons naturalized in any state court, showing the date 
of their naturalization, their residence, place of nativity, and 
the names and residences of their witnesses, and for that pur- 
pose they were to have access, at all times to, and the right to 
examine all applications for naturalization; which lists 
were to be sent to the chief supervisor for the pur- 
pose, as is naturally supposed, of assisting the local 
organizations of the Republican party in making their 
canvass of voters. On the day of election, these agents of 
the chief supervisor, or of the Republican party, more 
properly speaking, were to be in the room where the 
election was held, and to keep a tally of the votes 
polled, and to make a return to their chief, with any state- 
ment with respect to the elections, not under oath, which 
they might see fit, from which the chief was to make up a 
return to a board of canvassers consisting of three, and who 
were also to be appointed by the United States circuit 
judge ; which last named board of canvassers were to make 
out a return and send the same to the clerk of the House of 



T^E ELECTION JBtLL. 151 

Representatives^ whose duty it avouIcI have been to 
place the names of the persons so certified to him on the 
roll, under a penalty, on failure, of 15,000, no matter who 
the state authorities might certify were entitled to seats as 
their representatives in Congress. Besides, the chief super- 
visors would have had the power to appoint an unlimited 
number of special deputy marshals, whose duty it would 
have been to obey the orders of their master, the chief, 
under whose control the law would have placed them. 

It is evident to the mind of every intelligent person that 
the election bill was a well-concocted scheme to perpetuate 
the power and control of the Republican party. In order 
to accomplish the end desired, the leaders of that party 
plainly saw that it was necessary to take from the states the 
control of their elections, and their scheme preposed to 
hand over that power to certain federal officers, whose 
tenure of office was to have been so fixed that they could not 
be removed, outlived or uprooted short of death or by revo- 
lution. The scheme had its origin in the brain of corrupt 
and unscrupulous professional politicians. Only think of 
it! A bill containing 17,034 words — over four times as 
many words as are contained in the constitution of the 
United States. It must have taken months of study on the 
part of expert villains to have framed so perfect and 
complete a fraud in all its parts. 

In order to lay a grand and sweeping foundation for this 
outlandish and tyrannical scheme, a short time before the 
presentation of the election bill, a bill known as the Judici- 
ary Bill was passed through the House of Representatives 
under the new rules, with a rapidity approximating that of 
chain lightning. Old members were dazed and astonished. 
The bill was one revolutionizing the judiciary system of the 
United States, and should have received the most careful 
consideration ; but it had been passed by a caucus of the 
majority, and it was not deemed advisable that Democrats 
should know what its provisions were, much less to allow a 



152 THM ELECTION BILL. 

discussion of its merits to be placed in the record. In vain 
did the minority plead for sufficient time to acquaint them- 
selves with the contents of the bill. But it was of no use/ 
and the bill passed in four hours. It was suspicioned that 
it was the foundation of some stupendous fraud, which be- 
came plainly evident afterward. It was to pave the way 
for the election bill. In order to carry out the provisions 
of this bill, the Republicans considered it necessary that 
they should have, as near as possible, the absolute control 
of the United States Circuit Courts. They saw that, among 
the nineteen judges who were authorized to hold Circuit 
Courts, five of them were Democrats. They created, by the 
new bill, a large number of new circuit judgships, and, 
fearing that Judges Fuller, Field and Lamar, who are Dem- 
ocrats, might be a hinderance to them in carrying out the 
provisions of the election bill, they were relieved from the 
service on the circuit, thus leaving all the circuit judges, 
except two, Eepublicans. Thus they succeeded in con- 
structing an elegant foundation for their nefarious scheme. 
They have all the circuit judges but two, who hold their 
positions for life, and there is not much doubt that Harri- 
son, in appointing the new judges, will not neglect to ap- 
point the youngest men he can consistently, in order to 
guard against accidents in the future, and, for the purpose 
of maintaining the purity of civil service reform, he will not 
appoint any Democrats. Of course our federal courts 
should be non-partisan, but a proposition to make them 
such, in this instance, was unceremoniously voted down by 
the radicals. 

Had the Republicans been able to pass the election 
bill, each circuit judge holding a life position, as before 
stated, would have been compelled, on being petitioned, as 
hereinbefore mentioned, to appoint a chief supervisor in 
Ms district, who would have held his office, also, during life ; 
and his power, while he might have lived, was to have been 
absolute. After his appointment, his first duty would 



THE ELECTION BILL. 153 

have been to prepare and present to the court a list of 
persons whom he considered eligible for the office of super- 
visor of elections. From this list, the court would have 
been required, by the terms of that bill, to appoint 
six supervisors for each election precinct, from which number 
the chief supervisor would have selected three for service at 
each election precinct ; and, strange as it seems, the bill 
provided that not more than two out of the three should be 
taken from the same political party, who should exercise the 
full power of the board. The language would have been 
more easily understood had they said that, two out of the three 
constituting the board, should have been Republicans. The 
appointment by the court of six supervisors, while only 
three would have been needed at each precinct, would have 
given the chief supervisor an opportunity to select the 
men best fitted to execute his orders. Under that bill 
the chief supervisors were to have had complete control, not 
only over the precinct supervisors, but complete control over 
the congressional elections in their judicial district, and tlie 
chief supervisor might have suspended at once, any precinct 
supervisor whom he considered had failed or neglected to 
perform his duties, or whom the chief might have had 
doubts of being sufficiently tainted with that sort of integ- 
rity required to fill such a position. The chief could have 
dropped an honest supervisor, and clung to dishonest ones, 
and should the third supervisor, who might be a Democrat, 
or Prohibitionist, become troublesome, the chief could have 
removed him and left the place vacant. Under that bill 
the chief supervisor would have appointed the chairman of 
each board of supervisors, and would have had the power 
to so arrange and assign the supervisors that not a single 
one of them would have been a resident of the county 
in which he served. And they might all have been Re- 
publicans ; for, that bill would have made the chief super- 
visors supreme in all things connected with congressional 
elections, and there would have been no appeal from their 



154 THE ELECTION BILL. 

decisions. The supervisors appointed by the chief would 
have had the power to pass upon the eligibility of all voters, 
in spite of the election officers chosen or elected by the 
local or state authorities, and the certificate of those super- 
visors would have superseded that of the executive power of 
the states themselves. Besides, that army of supervisors, 
much greater in number than all the men enlisted in the 
army and navy of the United States, was to harass the 
people by making a house to house canvass of the voters for 
five weeks prior to the election. The bill provided that 
they might enter the sanctuary of every dwelling-house in 
the land for the purpose of making inquiries concerning 
the qualification of voters, and the power to attend upon 
every registration and challenge the citizen^'s right to 
register, regardless of the local or state authorities. Those 
supervisors were to cover, hound and harass every foreigner, 
whether naturalized or not, and were to hold their posi- 
tions for the period of two months after election, in order 
that their detective work might be well done in the 
interest of the powers which were to have been. When 
election day arrived, those supervisors, which the election 
bill designated as '^^ discreet"^ persons, but which really 
means "mercenary partisan spies," '^'^ soulless, degraded 
sleuth-hounds," perjurers, sneaks, thugs and thumpers, 
such as are found on the secret police in most cities, were 
to appear and take charge of the polls, direct every citizen 
where to deposit his ballot, require each elector to take any 
test oath which they might designate, and in case the 
local or state officers should fail to put such oath to every 
voter, if required by any supervisor, and pass upon the case 
at once, then the local authorities were to be at once ousted 
entirely. At the close, the supervisors were to count and can- 
vass the vote, and forward the returns in duplicate to the chief 
supervisor and the clerk of the court. The next thing that 
the election bill required was that the chief supervisor 
notify the judge to hold court for the purpose of appoint- 



i 

i 



THE ELECTION BILL. 155 

ing a returiug board for each state, consisting of three, who 
were to hold their offices for life. The bill undoubt- 
edly required the chief supervisor to notify the judge that 
such action was necessary, in order that no mistake be 
made by any Democratic judge having an opportunity to 
appoint such board. Not more than two of this hoard were 
to have heen members of the same political party. Did 
anybody ever suppose that such fairness ever existed in the 
human breast ? This board were to canvass the vote for 
congressmen in all the districts of the state, and declare 
who were entitled to seats in Congress. A majority of the 
board were to decide the result, and their decision was to 
be final, save and except a right of appeal to the House of 
Kepresentatives, composed of men declared to be entitled to 
seats by the returning board, and who would always be in 
sympathy with the provisions of that infamous election bill. 
But this is not all that the election bill jorovided for. 
Republicans saw that it was necessary, in order to carry out 
their imperial scheme, that they should, not only have abso- 
lute control of the courts, chief supervisors and returning 
board, whose offices would be clothed with a life tenure, but 
they should have control of the police power also. It was 
therefore provided that myriads of special United States 
marshals should be appointed, who should be subject to the 
orders of the supervisors in canvassing for votes, and in con- 
ducting all elections. And how sagacious and thoughtful 
were those pious and moral gentlemen who engineered the 
construction of that infamous bill, in providing for their im- 
perial control of elections, should a Democratic president 
be elected. The United States marshals are appointed by 
the president, and at present they are all Eepublicans. 
Should a Democratic president be elected the marshals 
would all be Democrats. The framers of the bill, therefore, 
gave the chief supervisors, who hold their positions for life, 
absolute control over the marshals and their deputies in all 
election matters. The bill provided that ^Hhe number 



156 THE ELECTION BILL. 

of special deputies who may be appointed for election 
purposes shall be determined from time to time at 
conferences between the marshal and the chief super- 
visor of election." Now, it was evident that should 
the marshal be appointed by a Democratic president, he 
and the chief supervisor might not agree. It was, there- 
fore, necessary that some provision be made which would 
cover any and all such contingencies. This was done by 
inserting the following provision : ' ' No other or greater 
number of special deputies shall be appointed than the chief 
supervisor shall from time to time certify to be in his opin- 
ion necessary." This provision knocks out Mr. Democratic 
marshal, as the supervisor would have dictated, not only the 
number, but who should be appointed. But it was further 
discovered by the wily framers of the bill, that men might 
be appointed who would not do, so another provision was 
made to cover such contingency, as follows : '^'One-third of 
the special deputy marshals appointed in any authorized 
place must and shall be taken and named from such list of 
persons as shall be forwarded the marshal by the chief 
supervisor of elections ;" and the bill further provided that 
the chief supervisor should have the power to assign the 
special deputy marshals for duty wherever he saw fit, thus 
giving the chief power to have any precinct, or number of 
]3recincts, absolutely controlled by that one-third of the 
deputy marshals designated by the chief in his list of per- 
sons, consisting of ^^ discreet" Eepublicans, from which the 
law would have required them to be chosen. 

How perfect that machinery was arranged for the exer- 
cise of the very refinement of tyranny ? The sentiments 
and ideas of those who concocted such a measure must cer- 
tainly have been inherited from the old Federal party 
which passed the alien and sedition laws, for it clothes the 
deputy marshals and the supervisors with power to harass 
and annoy naturalized voters, to enter the state courts and 
not only scrutinize and supervise the naturalization of citi- 



THE ELECTION BILL, 157 

zens, but to inquire into the legality of the naturalization 
of foreigners heretofore made by the state courts. It was 
another scheme not only to prevent Democrats from voting, 
but to prevent foreigners who were not Eepublicans from 
becoming naturalized, and to deprive those who have been 
naturalized from voting, by taking their papers from them. 
It was the intention to open the way for the disgraceful 
proceedings which took place in New York city in 1876, 
where there were 11,615 deputy marshals appointed to 
guard, scrutinize and supervise the voters, and 6,000 super- 
visors appointed for the same purpose, and where, in 1878, 
the chief supervisor of elections had one of his assistants 
swear to a single complaint against 9,300 persons of foreign 
birth whose naturalization papers had been issued to them 
in 1868, and on which they had voted up to that time, 
upon which complaint were issued 5,004 warrants, and 
which were all set aside for illegality. Afterward 2,800 
more complaints were made, and warrants issued thereon, 
and the parties arrested and held until it was too late for 
them to vote, when they were discharged, not, however, 
until they had been frightened and bulldozed by a lawless 
set of election officers into surrendering up their naturaliza- 
tion papers, which have never been returned to them. 

The bill provided, as before stated, that the supervisors 
should hold their offices for two months after the election 
was over, and no further duties were required to be per- 
formed by them. What could have been the object of such 
a provision ? It certainly seems strange that an officer ap- 
pointed to perform certain services on a certain day should 
be retained in office for two months after his official duties 
are performed. It is very evident that the framers of the 
bill had some object in view, and that object could have 
been none other than to allow an}^ supervisor who might 
have made false returns, or done anything in violation of 
state law, to escape just punishment. It is well understood 
th^'t a federal officer can not be arrested by state authorities 



158 THE ELECTION BILL. 

while lie is acting as such official^ and the election bill pro- 
vided that any of those darling supervisors might rob the 
people of their honest votes and have time to avoid just pun- 
ishment. In order to provide more fully for the safety of 
any villain, or any number of villains, who might fail to es- 
cape, and be arrested for fraud against the rights of the 
people, the bill j)rovided that the laws of the United States, 
as they now exist, whereby jurors shall be drawn by the 
clerk of the .court and by a jury commissioner of the oppo- 
site party, should be amended so that the clerk of the court 
alone, who would in all cases be sure to be a Eepublican, 
■ and therefore represent the Eepublican party only, should 
have the right to select all the jurors, and the opposite 
party have no right to have any say in the matter whatever. 
That Avould have been an elegant scheme, not only in pre- 
venting guilty Eepublicans from being justly punished for 
yiolations of laAV, but any Democrat, however innocent, 
could have been convicted as a matter of course. Could a 
more ingenious proposition have originated in the brains of 
partisan adherents ? 

And what a splendid scheme that bill would have been in 
the interest of civil service reform. The Eepublican party, 
lor years, has been in the habit of levying assessments upon 
office-holders for the corruption of the people at the polls, 
9,nd thereby kept their party in power. The election bill 
provided for the appointment of an unlimited hoard of the 
adherents of that party, clothed with almost unlimited 
power, to work in the interest of that party at every voting 
precinct, at the expense of the United States government, 
It is estimated that the expense of running each election 
under such a bill would have been over $10,000,000. Only 
think of it ! An innumerable hoard of vagabonds, thieves, 
thugs, and murderers attending at the polls to do the bid- 
ding of corrupt partisan federal officials under pay of |5 to 
$15 and expenses per day. The chief supervisors were to 
biive been paid fees for filing papers, entering recopdsj, ^md 







SENATOR JOHN M. PALMER. 



THE ELECTION BILL. 161 

making returns and the like, by the folio, which could 
have been made as great in amount as they might have seen 
fit. The supervisors of elections were to have received $10 
for each election day, and $5 per day for services rendered, 
before and after election day. The unlimited number of 
deputy marshals were to have had $5 per day, and the 
board of canvassers were to have had $15 per day for fifteen 
days, and $5 per day for personal expenses, and a clerk at a 
cost of $12 per day. Kind legislation it would be, indeed, 
which would permit the hired mercenary spies, thumpers, 
and thugs, who work in the interest of the Eepublican 
party at every election precinct, to draw their compensation 
for such venal service from the United States treasury to 
an extent absolutely unlimited in amount. Besides the 
privilege of drawing $10,000,000 or more from the 
treasury, which the election bill would have permitted, the 
Republican party would still have had at its back its favored 
high tariff monopolists, who could have furnished what 
additional boodle might have been necessary in an emer- 
gency, and if absolute\ necessary, millions more could 
have been raised to add to the general corruption fund, by 
assessing the office-holders, who would have to put up or get 
out. A Democrat would have stood about as much show to 
be elected to Congress under the provisions of the election 
bill, as a snowball would have to exist in the hottest recesses 
of the infernal regions. 

To show what class of people would unquestionably have 
been appointed marshals and supervisors under the election 
bill, had it become a law, for the purpose of purifying our 
elections and to act as the guardian angels of the voters 
and their interests at the polls, it is only necessary to 
examine the character of the supervisors and deputy 
marshals appointed in Philadelphia and New York in 1870 
and 1878. The testimony taken before a sub-committee of 
the Senate in 1878^ shows that, of the deputy marshals 



162 THE ELECTION BILL. 

appointed in Philadelphia during that year the following is 
a fair average of their character. 

PHILADELPHIA MARSHALS. 

Charles Oliphant, marshal second division, Twentieth "ward, drunk on elec- 
tion day and insulting voters ; seized Mr. Hackenberg without cause. 

Charles Herr, marshal second division. Twenty-ninth ward, character and 
reputation bad, had been arrested for crime. On election day he arrested a 
voter, who was released by Judge Hare and voted. Herr wore a badge, and 
solicited votes as a Republican. 

Arthur Yance, marshal eighth division. Fifth ward, arrested Hutchinson, 
a voter, without cause. Yance was a notorious Republican worker. 

John Homeyard, marshal sixth division. Sixth ward, drunk, and arrested 
voters without cause ; drew a club on a Democrat for challenging a negro 
repeater. The police blocked up the poll, acted in concert with Homeyard, and 
brought voters to the polls. Homeyard vouched for Republican voters and dis- 
tributed Republican tickets. Shriver, a Unite'd States revenue officer, kept 
Republican window-book. 

J. R. Desano, marshal first division, Fifth ward, drunk all day ; too drunk 
to ai-rest anyone. There were five policemen at these polls. Desano never 
voted in that division before that day. 

James Brown, marshal fourteenth division. Fourth ward, record of his 
conviction in 1872 for voting illegally produced. Proof was made that he 
voted twice on the same day. 

William Augustus, fourth division, Eighth ward^ acted as marshal, assum- 
ing authority as such, but was not on the list ; a R^ublican worker. 

Josepb. Hilferty, marshal twenty-first division. Second ward, held the 
Republican window-book all day and electioneered ; threatened to aiTest the 
Democratic United States supervisor for procuring bail for a legal voter who 
had been arrested. 

William McGowan, marshal twenty-third division, Second ward. A police- 
man blocked up the voting-window, and a Democratic United States super- 
visor ordered him away, when McGfowan and the policeman seized him and 
locked him up in the station-house on a charge of interfering with officers. 
The case was never tried. McGowan is eniployed in the gas office and paid 
by the city. 

Charles N. Miller, detective, testified that in the seventeenth division of 
Nineteenth ward a gang of repeaters were brought to the polls by a letter- 
carrier; he had one of the gang arrested. 

Phillip Madden, marshal Fourth ward, one of the most dangerous men in 
the city; has been in prison twice, once for highway robbery, and the second 
time for shooting a colored boy. 

Francis McNamee, marshal Eighth ward, had been arrested for five difi'er- 
ent robberies. 

Andrew Lenoir, marshal First ward, a warrant has been issued for him for 
larceny. 



TBE ELECTION BILL. 163 

Daniel Redding, marshal First ward, a bad and dangerous man ; had been 
tried for murder. 

Henry Pitts, marshal Seventh ward, a colored man who keeps a gambling- 
house and been aiTested twice ; distributed Republican tickets and vouched 
for voters. 

R. S. Springfield, marshal Fifteenth ward, had been tried for shooting a 
man : character veiy bad. 

Michael Slavin, marshal Fifth ward, a thief and notorious repeater ; had 
been arrested for subornation of perjury, but never tried. 

William Glenn, marshal Xineteenth ward, superintendent of Xorris square, 
and paid by the city for his duties. 

Enoch Baker, marshal second division. Third ward, arrested John Carroll, a 
legal voter, without cause, and locked him up ; Carroll was discharged after a 
hearing. 

J. Roberts, marshal sixteenth division, Third ward, arrested John Johnson, 
a legal voter, and locked him up all night ; case never tried. Roberts election- 
eered for the Republican ticket ; was a clerk in the gas oflB.ce and paid by the 
city ; there were also twelve or fourteen policemen at that poll all day, and 
they blocked up the poU. 

Andrew Jackson, marshal twenty-second division. Thirtieth ward, 
employed in the gas works under the city. Ackerman, Republican judge of 
elections, acted as United States supervisor and judge, and refused to vacate 
the place of judge after written orders by Marshal Kerns and Judge Eleook. 
Jackson aiTested Feeny. who had been legally appointed judge, and took him 
away from the polls. Did not return to get possession until 2 p. m. 

C. A. Pinnexson, marshal Thirtieth ward, aided in arresting Feeny. 

Taylor, marshal fifteenth division. Third ward, arrested Sweeny for 

illegal voting, and locked him up : charge was found to be false, and he was 
released and voted. 

James Calligan, marshal eighth division, Sixth ward, so drunk in the after- 
noon he could not walk ; seized a qualified voter by the collar and staggered 
with him against the wall ; policeman brought a repeater to the polls, who was 
arrested, as was the policeman. 

Henry Scott, marshal second division. Seventh ward, a man of bad repute; 
colored ; keeps a low drinking house ; electioneered and gave out tickets and 
tax receipts ; was inside at the counting of the vote, and took tickets out of 
the box ; only 5 votes came out for the Democratic candidate for Congress ; 
Democratic overseer contested this, and Scott allowed 17 to be counted for 
hiiu. 

Thomas Donlan, marshal seventh division. Sixth ward, an habitual drunk- 
ard, and a graduate of house of correction, for this ; was drunk all day. 

William D. Earth, marshal, same place, blocked up the voting window and 
would not allow legal voters to come to it ; there were two United States 
marshals and six policemen at the poll. 

John Archer, marshal twenty-seventh division, Xineteenth ward, acted as 
United States supervisor ; was on both lists and paid as both oflficers ; when a 
marshal wanted during the day to arrest a Republican repeater he did not 



164 THE ELECTION BILL, 

make known that he was a deputy marshal ; had no badge ; heavy Eepubiicail 
division ; no policemen there. 

Joseph T. Fuller, marshal sixth division, Twenty-third ward, a guard in 
the house of correction, and paid by the city. 

"William Stringfield, marshal thirty-second division. Twenty-fourth ward, 
arrested a legal voter and took him to the magistrate's, where he was dis- 
charged ; Stringfield was discharged from employment the day before election 
for stealing. 

Charles Male, marshal seventh division. Eleventh ward, keeps a house of 
prostitution. 

Abraham Hoffman, marshal Eleventh ward, a repeater, and had kept a 
house of prostitution within a year ; a thief. 

William Eckenbrim, marshal Eleventh ward, arrested for larceny; bill 
ignored. 

David Beckman, marshal thirty-second division, Nineteenth ward, held the 
Republican window-book and electioneered; threatened to put the Democratic 
United States supervisor out of the room for challenging a voter; the vote 
was rejected, and the voter did not return. 

William B. Ahern, marshal ninth division. Twelfth ward, employed in the 
United States revenue office. 

Fleming, marshal sixth division. Eighteenth ward, distributed Re- 
publican tickets and challenged voters; a legal vote was rejected on his chal- 
lenge ; intimidated many Democratic voters. 

William Boehm, marshal eighteenth division. Twenty-ninth ward, plug in- 
spector, and paid by the city ; electioneered and distributed Republica i 
tickets. 

Charles Prenderville, marshal seventeenth division. Fifth ward, arrested n 
legal voter ; case never tried ; electioneered for Republicans all day. 

This was the record of a two days' investigation at Philadelphia. 

J. F. Balderhop, appointed by this estimable Judge Woodruff, at the in- 
stance of some of my friend's " bucket-men " in New York, some of those 
" shoulder hitters" and "rat-pit heroes." 

Theodore, alias Mike Anthony, alias Snuffy, of 24 Cherry street, a laborer 
thirty-five years of age, married, and cannot read or write. Anthony wa? 
arrested by Detective James Finn, of the fourth precinct, on July 24, 1870, for 
larceny from the person, and was held in $2,000 bail for trial by Justice 
Hogan. He was indicte'd by the grand jury on the charge on the 23d of 
August last. 

Joseph Frazier, of 279 Water street, is a thief and confederate of thieves. 
That is, a union thief. 

James Miller is the keeper of a den of prostitution in the basement of 331)- 
Water street. 

James Tinnigan keeps a similar den in the basement of 337 Water street. 

James Sullivan, alias Slocum, keeps a house of prostitution at 330 Water 
street, which is a resort for desperate thieves. 

Frank Winkle keeps a house of prostitution at 337^ Water street. The 



THE ELECTION BILL. 165 

police are frequently called in to quell fights in Winkle's place, and it bears a 
hard reputation. 

Now I come to a good fellow, a great chap. Of course it could not be sup- 
posed that the present chief of the supervisors in New York could appoint 
now any character holding as high a position as this one evidently does in 
that fraternity : 

The radical authorities have appointed one John alias "Bucky," McCabe^ 
a supervisor of the eighth district, Fifteenth ward. He is now under indict- 
ment for shooting a man with intent to kill. This precious " supervisior" 
originated here, and Avas first known to the police for his dexterity in robbing 
emigrants. His picture is in the "rogues' gallery" at police headquarters in 
this city, No. 2^25. He was known as Pat Maddon, alias "Old Sow," alias 
Honsey Nichols, alias Dennis McCabe. His real name is Andrew Andrews. His 
wife resides in North Pearl street, and the "'supervisor" of the eighth dis- 
trict, Fifteenth ward, New York, is down in the directory as a citizen of Al- 
bany. 

Joseph Hurtnett, supervisor Eighteenth ward. Arrested June 3, 1869, as 
accessoiy to the murder of Eichard Gerdes, a grbcer, corner of First avenue 
and Twenty-fourth street. 

Heniy Kail, supervisor Eighth ward. One of the principals in the Chatham- 
street saloon murder ; went off "West to escape punishment, and has only been 
back a few weeks. 

James Moran, supervisor third district. Eighth ward. Arrested the pre- 
vious Sunday for felonious assault. 

William (alias Pomp) Harton (colored), marshal Twenty-second ward. 
Arrested a few days before for vagrancy. 

Theodore Allen, marshal Eighth ward. Now in prison for perjury, and 
keeps a house, the resort of panel-thieves and pickpockets, on Mercer street. 

He is in jail to-day for murder, or is out on bail, being charged with 
murder. Now, who is this man. The. Allen 1 He has been exported from 
New York into in order to interfere in the elections of Connecticut, not, I 
agree, by any government action, not by action of the United States officers ; 
far be it from me to make a charge of that character. One of his brothers 
served a sentence of six or seven years in the state prison of Connecticut. 
Another one of them staid in the inside of the jail at Hartford on a charge 
of burglary longer than he cared to, and so one night he left, and they have 
not heard from him since in Connecticut. His name is not in this list, but 
he family are a rising family of honest Kepublicans. 

Richard O'Connor, supervisor seventh district. First ward ; has been for 
years receiver of smuggled cigars from Havana steamers. 

L. H. Cargill. supervisor ninth district. Ninth ward; tried in United 
States court for robbing the mail. 

John Tan Buren, supervisor twelfth district. Eighth ward ; was at one time 
in sheriff's office, and discharged for caiTying a load of seized goods from the 
establishment of Richard "Walters in East Broadway. 

Mart Allen, marshal Eighth ward ; seiTcd a term of five years in the Con- 
necticut state prison ; sentenced to Sing Sing for five years by Judge Bedford. 



l66 THM j^LEOTtON BILL. 

His case was appealed, and while waiting for decision he managed to get Out 
on bail. His case has been decided against him, and he ihas fled to parts 
unknown to plj his vocation and hclj) the radicals elsewhere. 

John McChesney, supervisor fourth district, Mnth ward; associates with 
thieves ; bears a bad character generally. 

William Cassidy, supervisor twelfth district, Mnth ward ; is a street bum- 
mer, without any visible means of support. 

Thomas Mclntire, marshal Eighth ward ; has been frequently arrested for 
beating his aged mother; sent several times to Blackwell's Island. 

Timothy Lynch, marshal sixth district, First ward ; a Washington market 
lounger. 

Peter Mose, marshal Sixth ward ; habitual drunkard. 

John Conner, supervisor first district. First ward ; keeps a disorderly gin- 
mill, resort of lowest characters. 

Francis Jordan, supervisor sixth district, -First ward ; lives in New Jersey; 
was turned out of the postoffice by Postmaster Jones for bad conduct. 

Bernard Dugan, supervisor eighth district. First ward ; habitual drunkard. 
His wife left him on account of his drunkenness, and procured a divorce on 
that ground. 

John Tobin, supervisor ninth district, First ward; arrested about six 
months before for grand larceny. 

Patrick Murphy, supervisor fourth district. Sixth ward ; two years ago dis- 
tributed fradulent naturalization papers, and would furnish them to anybody 
that would promise to vote for Grant. 

Edward Slevin, Jr., supervisor second district. Fourth ward; has an indict- 
ment now pending against him in court of general sessions for cutting a boy 
named Kilkenney. 

Michael Foley, supervisor fourth district. Fourth ward ; well known 
repeater, voting for anybody that will pay. 

James F. Day, supervisor seventh district. Fourth ward ; shot at a man in 
a fight between the Walsh association and a gang from Water street. 

John Conn ers, "alias Jockey," supervisor third district, Fourth ward; a 
well-known desperate character. 

* * * * * * * 

Michael Costello, marshal Sixth ward; bounty-jumper during the war. 

Harry Eiee, supervisor thirteenth district. Sixth ward ; was connected 
with the Chatham street concert saloon murder, and fled to Nebraska to 
escape punishment. 

Thomas Lane, supervisor seventeenth district. Sixth ward; formerly 
keeper of a notorious den at Five Points, headquarters of thieves and 
robbers. 

John Lane, supervisor twenty-second district, same ward ; was indicted 
for receiving stolen goods. Has served a term in Sing Sing. 

Edward Foley, supervisor sixth district, Ninth ward; arrested the j-ear 
before for stealing a watch. 

It may be possible that the people of the United States 



THE ELECTION BtLL. 167 

have become so abandoned^ during the first century of the 
republic, that they can neither be trusted to choose the 
managers of their elections, nor to cast their ballots with- 
out being scrutinized and supervised by a lot of unscrupu- 
lous satraps ; but it would be rather a hard tax to convince 
them that such is the case. If the people have become so 
corrupt, and their integrity so weakened that they cannot 
be longer trusted, it must have taken place since the 
Republican party has held the reins of government. But 
it is not so. The Republican leaders have a party following 
which would -follow them though they knew it to be their 
avowed purpose to establish a monarchy in the place of this 
republic ; but there is a powerful minority of voters in 
that party who would and will revolt against revolutionary 
measures which tend to deprive the people of their sacred 
liberties. While a majority of the voters who have hereto- 
fore cast their ballots for the Republican party would be 
willing to see the fundamental principles of the govern- 
ment cast to the four winds in order to continue the 
Republican party in power, a powerful minority would 
assist in the destruction of that party, that the government 
might be preserved intact. It would be shameful, indeed, 
were the people willing to see the priceless inheritance for 
which their ancestors fought, wrested from them to perpet- 
uate the existence of a. corrupt political party. 

There were other outrageous provisions contained in the 
election bill. Under it there would have been no provision 
for the correction of any wrongs on the part of those acting 
under it. It did not provide that the rights of the people 
should be respected and protected. In fact, it would have 
done away with every feature of fairness connected with the 
present election laAVS, for, it not only provided for the selec- 
tion of partisan juries, as already stated, but that provision 
contained in the present laAv, which requires that the super- 
visors shall be taken, one from each political party, would 
have been repealed by the provisions of that bill. 



168 THE ELECTION BILL. 

Then the bill had no respect for the rights of the states^ 
or their citizens. By its provisions it was proposed to 
override the state laws relating to elections^ and to super- 
sede the authorities placed in charge of state elections by 
the state authorities. It would have authorized the super- 
visors to count the ballots for state officers, and, in certain 
instances, to take charge of the poll books belonging to the 
states. It would have imposed fines and imprisonment 
upon state officers for violating the provisions of the bill. 
It would have authorized the supervisors to challenge 
voters who desired to register under state laws, or, when 
registered to challenge their votes, and thus prevent them 
from voting for state or county officers. Some of the states, 
through an honest desire to purify the ballot, have pro- 
vided by law for the Australian system, and that infamous 
election bill was so inconsistent with any honest regulation 
for voting at the polls, that any attempt to put it in force 
would have caused such a conflict between state and federal 
authorities as would have rendered it impossible to have 
enforced it, except by taking from the states the right to 
provide for and control their elections. What right has 
Congress to provide for the prevention of the registration 
and voting of citizens at state elections by surrounding the 
polls, at such elections, with strangers and men of notor- 
iously bad character, as such men universally are who are 
willing to perform the venal service required in such cases? 
Only think of a federal officer challenging the right of the 
citizen of a state to vote, and another federal officer exclud- 
ing his ballot, in the face and eyes of the fact that the 
state authorities declare that such citizen has the right to 
vote! The citizen, in such case, would have been deprived 
of his right to vote even for state and county officers, but 
such were the provisions in the election bill. 

Much has been said concerning the constitutionality of 
the provisions contained in that famous bill. To make the 
matter short, its projectors knew that there was not a 



THE ELECTION BILL. 169 

Bhadow to warrant its constitutionality^ and every effort 
made in Congress to show any legal basis for the same, only 
had a tendency to show the vile cowardice of its supporters. 
The clause of the constitution upon which its advocates 
based the bill, reads as follows : 

The times, places and manner of Ivolcling elections for senators and repre- 
sentatives shall be prescribed in each state by the legislature thereof; but the 
Congress may at any time by law make or alter such regulations, except as to 
the places of choosing senators. 

It is well known that, at the time of the adoption of the 
constitution, this clause was construed to be applicable only 
to cases where state authorities might fail to make provis- 
ions for the election of senators and representatives. But 
the advocates of this bill contended that the government 
had the absolute power to take from the states the right to 
provide for and control the election of senators and repre- 
sentatives. Great heavens, only think of it ! This would 
give the government (or rather the Republican party) 
the power, not only to apjooint unnumbered supervisors, 
marshals, spies, detectives and thugs to scrutinize and 
supervise and take possession, if they thought proper, 
of the polls where congressmen were being voted for, but to 
scrutinize, supervise and take control of the machi- 
nery for the election of United States senators. The 
framers of the coustitution never dreamed of granting 
to the government the power to take control of state elec- 
tions for senators and representatives. Even though it be 
admitted that Congress might alter state regulations in re- 
gard to the manner of holding elections for senators and 
representatives, there is nothing in the clause of the consti- 
tution quoted which authorizes Congress to pass laws 
authorizing the states to be invaded and their right to hold 
and control their elections taken away from them. If it 
were true that Congress has the right to fix the time and 
place of holding elections for senators and represeiitatives, 
then Congress could only fix the time and place. Admit- 



170 THE ELECTION BILL. 

ting that Congress has the right to make or alter the regu- 
lations prescribed by the state Legislatures for the manner 
of holding the elections for senators and representatives, 
upon what did the supporters of the election bill base the 
right of Congress to select the officers and conduct the elec- 
tions^ or to interfere with such elections in any manner ? 
To make regulations for state elections does not include the 
power to invade the states and take control of their elec- 
tions. When Congress has said that such elections shall be 
by ballot^ and be held at a certain time and place, the ut- 
most limit of a doubtful power is reached, and the advocates 
of that bill are perfectly aware that Congress has no legal 
right to pass that limit. 

There is no better mode of ascertaining what interpreta- 
tion the framers of the constitution placed upon this 
clause of that instrument, than by referring to the declara- 
tions of the states which finally adopted it, and the general 
expressions of the legislatures of the states long after its 
adoption. Most of the states, while considering the joro- 
priety of the adoption of the constitution, objected to the 
insertion of this clause, and reluctantly consented to it 
after becoming convinced that it was only intended to com- 
pel the state authorities to provide for the election of sena- 
tors and representatives, in order that the machinery of the 
government might continue to be complete in all its parts. 
So far as. the people are concerned, every expression has 
universally been in condemnation of the right of Congress 
to take from them the right to decide how their elections 
shall be conducted, and by whom they shall be controlled ; 
and we know of no attempt to interfere, prior to the war, 
with the right of the people in this respect until 1842, 
when an attempt was made by Congress to compel the 
states to elect their members of Congress from separate dis- 
tricts, which should be composed of contiguous territory. 
Some of the states then consented. Four of the states 
refused to comply with the law, and elected their congress- 



THE ELECTION BILL. 171 

men at large as they had been doing. The question 
whether the members elected in such a manner from those 
four states were entitlee to seats was considered, and, after 
due deliberation, the House of Eepresentatives, by a large 
majority, set at naught the statute of the United States, 
wlierein it provided for the manner of electing congress- 
men from the states which had disobeyed that law. Among 
the states which opposed the law of 1842, were Ohio, Xew 
Hampshire, Xew York, Missouri, Georgia and Mississippi. 
The Legislature of the state of Ohio, in 1813, passed the 
following resolutions concerning the act of 1812 : 

Resolved, That Congress has no right, under the constitution of the 
United States, to prescribe the manner, time or place of holding elections for 
choosing members of its own body, except in case where the Legislatures of 
the states shall refuse or fail to make provision for the same. 

Hesohed, That the General Asscmblr, acting in behalf of the people of the 
State of Ohio, do hereby solemnly protest against the late attempt of the 
national Legislature to encroach upon the independence of the several states 
composing this Union ; and the second section of the act alluded to is hereby 
declared to be unconstitutional, arbitrary and of no binding effect upon the 
states. 

And the Legislature of the state of Xew Hampshire, in 
the same year, passed the following resolutions : 

Resolved, That the recent act of Congress, directing the states to be dis- 
tricted for the choice of representatives to Congress, is a direct violation of the 
provisions of the federal compact, and we can not regard the same as binding 
upon the states. 

Resolved, That we can not sanction so unauthorized interference in our 
domestic relations on the part of Congress, and shall, therefore, decline to 
district this state for the choice of representatives to Congress. 

^ew York and other states passed resolutions denounc- 
ing, in more emphatic terms, the provisions of the act of 
1842. 

Such a political machine as that j)roposed by the election 
bill never originated in the mind of a statesman, for such 
men are seldom known to originate schemes that are an in- 
sult to every rational being in the land. It originated in 
the minds of men who, instead of being statesmen, consist 
of degenerated and xmscrupulous politicians who have mas- 



172 THE ELECTION BILL, 

ters to obey in shaping the legislation of the country. In 
1884 Grover Cleveland was elected president^ and when the 
Eepublicans made their great effort to pass the election bill 
the elections for Congress had gone hard against them. 
They attempted by this bill, while they still supposed they 
had the power, to place the elections in the hands of parti- 
san officials of their own selection, in order that the reins 
of government might never slip from their hands again. 
The chief advocates of that bill live in New England, where 
the very worst ideas of old Federalism have ever prevailed, 
and from whence the power emanates which molds and 
directs the -policy of the Republican party, and secures leg- 
islation unjust to the South and West, thereby enabling 
them to secure the lion^s share of the patronage of the gov- 
ernment and fill the coffers of their wealthy monopolists 
with the earnings of the masses they oppress. 

Men who represent the wealthy monopolists of New Eng- 
land are not only arrogant, impudent and austere, but hyp- 
ocritical and self-conceited to the last degree. For exam- 
ple, Mr. Grreenhalge, during the discussion upon the election 
bill, said : 

Whenever, Mr. Speaker, I am in doubt as to the wisdom or expediency of 
any proposed legislation in this house, I have a certain rule "which enables me 
to at once resolve any such doubt. If I find that opposition to a pending 
measxu'e is coupled with a virulent attack upon Massachusetts, or upon some 
of her distinguished thinkers or scholars, like my colleague in this house (Mr. 
Lodge), whose ability, integrity and high purposes are a glory to Massachusetts, 
I know then that the measure thus opposed is one in the interest of progress, 
of order, of liberty and of equality. 

It is natural, Mr. Speaker, that these attacks upon Massachusetts should be 
made. As her flashing ideas march out like battalions from the citadel of her 
peerless intellect, it is only natural, it is only to be expected, that the forces 
of vice and corruption, the guerrillas of political society, should hang upon 
the flanks of her forces and attempt to impede and interrupt their onward 
march. 

The foregoing is a fair sample not only of the conceit, 
but of that arrogance, impudence and austerity which char- 
acterize Republican representatives from New England. 
Jt is also ^n elegant sample pf those " flashing ideas ^^ which 



I 




GOV. HORACE BOIES. 

Permission of Chicago Times. 



THE ELECTION BILL. 175 

" march out like battalions from the citadel ^' of the " peer- 
less intellect '^ of Massachusetts. Those who object to the 
unjust aggressions of tyrannical and unscrupulous Repub- 
lican leaders from that portion of the country, who, under 
the false pretense of promoting progress, order, liberty and 
equality, would rob the people of their earnings and 
deprive them of their sUcred rights at the ballot box, are 
■ denominated by this sparkling light from Massachusetts as 
^•guerrillas of political society/' 

The fact is, Republican representatives from New Eng- 
land have made far more virident, unjust and untruthful 
attacks upon other joortions of the country than the repre- 
sentatives from other parts ever made against Massachusetts 
and the "flashing ideas'' of her '^^distinguished thinkers 
and scholars." What troubles a New England representa- 
tive the worst is, that most of the accusations made against 
that section are true, while those which have marched out 
" from the citadel of her j)eerless intellect'' have consisted 
principally of base falsehoods uttered for partisan j)urposes, 
and to create and intensify sectional feelings, that they 
might be the better able to control a great political 
organization in their own selfish interests. 

It is certainly proper to refer to the traditions of a 
political party steeped in the worst old Federal ideas, in 
order to properly explain the cause of the tendency of that 
party to corrupt and unprincipled legislation ; and, as the 
stronghold of the old British Federal party, from which our 
modern Republican party descended, and whose sentiments 
seem to have been adopted by the latter as those which are 
to control its action in the future, was located in New 
England, the representatives from that section should not 
scringe when the truth is told concerning them, especially 
when they are throwing all the dirt possible at other sec- 
tions, and continually falsif^^ing their own record. 

The New England states, while under the dominion of 
the old Federal and this rrtoderi:^ Republican part^_, hq-ve 



176 THE ELECTION BILL. 

been truthfully charged with political wrongs and crimes 
in comparison with which those charged against other 
sections are virtues. It is the only section of country in 
this broad land where witchcraft was ever made an offense 
under the law and people put to death in pursuance of the 
decrees of institutions called courts of justice. Had it 
not been for the zeal with which the New England states 
insisted upon retaining the institution of slavery in 1776, 
when the colonies declared their independence, on account 
of two-fifths of her population being slaves, and one-third 
of all her property consisting of slaves, slavery would have 
been abolished then. But the New England people who 
owned slaves were too rapacious then to emancipate them 
on account of the cruelty and injustice of slavery. They 
must first convert the slaves into money, which they did, 
by selling their negroes to Southern planters, after becoming 
convinced that the North was not so well adapted to that 
institution as the South. The state of Virginia shows a 
better record than this. ''''From the year 1699 to 1772 her 
General Assembly passed twenty-three acts to discourage 
and prohibit the importation of slaves. These acts were all 
vetoed by the king of England, or by his colonial governors. 
The last act was accompanied by a petition to the throne 
urging the king to remove all restraint which inhibited his 
majesty^s governor from assenting to such laws as might 
check so very pernicious a commerce as that of slavery. 
This petition was disregarded, and so deep was the indig- 
nation of the people against the king for his conduct that 
the preamble of the constitution of Virginia of 1776 com- 
plains of this as one of the acts of insurmountable and 
detestable tyranny of the king of Great Britain, that he had 
prompted the negroes to rise in arms against the people, 
the very negroes whom by an inhuman use of his negative 
he refused the people permission to exclude by law. '' In the 
year 1778, as soon as Virginia obtained control of her own 
a:S^ir8j she prohibited the importation of slaves^ either by 



THE ELECTION BILL. 177 

land or water, under the penalty of 1,000 pounds and the 
freedom of the slaves, and thus gave to the world the first 
example of abrogating the slave trade. This was thirty 
years before England prohibited it or New England was 
willing to have it prohibited." 

N"ew England was controlled by Federalists in 1811-12, 
and Spencer and Lossing, in their history of the United 
States, tell us that ^''Boston caused the flags of her shipping 
to be hoisted at half mast on hearing the news of the decla- 
ration of war with England, in token of mourning and humil- 
iation. All New England resounded with the bitterest denun- 
ciations of the executive and the war party. The state legis- 
latures, the merchants, the lawyers, the wealth, and the 
talent of this portion of our country fiercely arrayed them- 
selves against the administration and its measures; and 
many of the New England ministers, who thought them- 
selves called upon to be guides in politics as Avell as religion, 
indulged in a style and violence of invective which has no 
parallel elsewhere in history. A specimen or two of these 
diatribes may not be improperly quoted : 

^^^It is a war," exclaimed one ardent beater of the drum 
ecclesiastic, '^ unexampled in history ; proclaimed on the 
most frivolous and groundless pretenses ; let no considera- 
tion whatever deter my brethren at all times and at all 
places from execrating the present war. Mr. Madison has 
declared it, let Mr. Madison carry it on. If you do not 
wish to become the slaves of those who are slaves, and 
are themselves the slaves of French slaves, you must cut the 
connection, or so far alter the constitution as to secure 
yourselves a share in the government. The Union has been 
long since virtually dissolved, and it is high time that this 
part of the Disunited States should take care of itself." 

" And again more furiously shouted another, ' What sooty 
slave in all the ancient dominion more obsequiously watched 
the eye of his master, and flew to the indulgence of his 
desires more servilely, than those same masters have waited 



178 THE ELECTION BILL. 

and watched, and obeyed the orders of the great Napoleon? 
How Avill the supporters of this anti-christian warfare en- 
dure their sentence — - endure their own reflections — endure 
the fire that forever burns — the worm that never dies — 
the hosannas of heaven, while the smoke of their torments 
ascend forever and ever/ 

"1^0 wonder," says the historian, ''^if, under such 
harangues as these must have been, New England arrayed 
herself against the war and did everything in her power to 
oppose and harass the administration." 

Allusion has already been made to the fact that the differ- 
ent New England legislatures passed resolutions forbidding 
the United States government from marching her troops 
over New England territory for the purpose of fighting the 
English, and even threatened, not only to dissolve the 
Union, if their resolutions were not heeded, but to join the 
British, and throw themselves under the ]3rotection of the 
British government. Then, as now, the Federalists of New 
England claimed to be the only moral and patriotic party 
in the land. It requires a party of great moral standing to 
successfully bulldoze its paupers and laborers engaged in 
great manufactories, such as are found in New England, 
into voting the Eepublican ticket, by openly placarding the 
doors of their factories to the effect that ^'^ those who are 
found voting the Democratic ticket will be discharged." 
In this manner votes are controlled in Massachussetts, and 
votes cast, not by negroes, but by white men. There is no 
shot-gun policy about it, but the votes are controlled by 
that high moral force and standing which characterizes the 
Eepublican party. 

When the question of fraud is considered, it cannot be 
successfully denied that the Republican party takes the 
cake. Its name in this connection is the very synonym of 
fraud. Seeing the control of the government about to slip 
from them, the leaders of that party proposed to gain the 
day by legalized force and fraud, with the privilege of stick- 



THE ELECTION BILL. 179 

ing their filthy hands into the treasury to pay the expenses 
of their campaigns. They came to the conclusion that it 
had become a party necessity to convert this government, 
which has been one for and by the people, into a des- 
potism of force and fraud, by the passage of the election 
bill. It was carefully framed in secrecy. " It was launched 
upon the world with such haste that the report of the 
minority ^^ of the committee was not even bound with that 
of the majority. ^^The majority report was given out only 
three days and the minority report only one day before the 
bill was taken up. The people knew nothing of its details, 
and only a single copy of the measure was allowed to each 
representative.^^ The measures taken to pass the bill through 
the House were as infamous as the bill itself. No wonder 
that their plans were secret, and their desire so strong for 
quick action, and a suppression of discussion. During the 
fifty-first Congress they turned out, among others, a Dem- 
ocratic representative from the HouSe who had been elected 
by over 13,000 majority. They have recently, for partisan 
reasons only, refused to admit certain teritories as states, 
fearing they might be Democratic, and admitted others 
which had neither the wealth nor population of those re- 
fused admittance. Twenty-four years after the Eepubli- 
can party assumed control of the government we find Ee- 
publicans themselves confessing their sins in the following 
language, the truth of which can readily be recollected by 
any person acquainted with the politics of the country, to 
wit : 

For many years corruption in high office has been conspicuous. It has 
shown itself in every department of the public service. W^e have seen a 
vice-president driven into private life by proof of personal dishonesty; a 
secretary of -war impeached for participation in felony ; a secretaiy of the 
navy charged ^vith con-upt practices, and leaving office under a cloud of sus- 
picion, only to appear as a Republican leader in the House of Kepresonatives; 
a secretary of the interior forced from his office by charges aflecting his 
personal and official character ; an attorney-general compromised by evidence 
of petty fraud. 

In the treasury department we have seen prominent officers implicated in 



180 THE ELECTION BILL. 

Sanborn contracts, and suspected of complicity in the gigantic conspiracy to 
defraud the revenue, known as the "Whisky Ring," and the private secretary 
of the president indicted as a conspirator, while the minister who sought to 
punish the criminals was dismissed from office. In the post office department 
we have seen an assistant secretary conspiring with senators of the United 
States in star-route frauds, and the conspirators boldly defying the government, 
which Avas powerless to seciire justice in its own capital city. We have seen 
the last Republican speaker disgraced by proof that he had shamefully abused 
his appointing power, and, in face of this evidence, which has destroyed the 
confidence of his constituents, again the chosen candidate of the Republican 
party for the same high office. In the signal service wo have seen a superin- 
tendent, in the treasury department a chief clerk, and in other departments 
trusted officers guilty of stealing the public money. 

We have seen the guilty protected, but we have yet to see them punished. 
We have seen the whole patronage of the federal government used openly to 
support a leader in Tirginia whose principle is repudiation, and whose methods 
violate every rule of political morality. We have seen the public business 
neglected, the reform of the civil service sneered at, and political assessments 
levied in defiance of party promises and public opinion, until the wave of 
popular indignation forced a reluctant Congress to inaugm-ate reform. The 
evils of a debased currency have been disregarded ; our navy is a monument 
of maladministration ; the surplus, with all its temptations to extravagance, 
remains substantially imdiminished. 

Finally, we have seen the Republican party relying for its continuance m 
power, not on its own achievements, but on the mistakes of its ojiponents, 
and we have seen its leaders not seeking to prevent, but to encourage these 
mistakes, in order that thereby, at their country's expense, they might be 
fiu'nished with arguments for their continuance in power. We have seen all 
these things, and have been told that the party must be reformed from within ; 
that our remedy lay in its caucuses and conventions. Tor years we have 
yielded to this advice, and have struggled against the men who have sought 
to use the party for base personal ends. At times we have thought them 
beaten, and have hoped that the party, which was once so great, might 
emancipate itself from the control of the men who had degraded it and re- 
assert its original character. Instead we now see these men promoted and 
their influence increased, while under their inspiration the party turns its 
back upon its principles, and, in place of declaring in clear words its policy on 
the questions of the day, by equivocal declarations and unmanly appeals to a 
prejudice, seeks to secure votes only to perpetuate the power of its managers, 
and not to advance the prosperity of the country. 

Eepublicans seemed^ during the debate on the election 
bill, to work themselves into a white heat over the idea that 
it was wrong that a majority should rule a minority, and, 
therefore, made new rules, and placed a small-sized despot 
in the speaker^s chair to assist a majority in trampling a 



TH1E ELECTION BILL. I8l 

minority into the dust, as having no rights which they were 
bound to respect. But the gerrymandering done during 
the first session of the fifty-first Congress is but a small 
part of the infamour. work done by Eepublicans to elect 
senators and representatives to Congress, and deprive the 
minority of any representation whatever. Some of their 
conduct in the states cannot be better stated than in the 
language of Representative O^lSTeall, of Indiana, in the 
House of Representatives June 30, 1890. He said : 

Why should the gentleman from lo^ra scold so loud about the minority 
ruling a majority? But for the suppression of a Democratic majority of 3,000 
in the county from which he comes — Dubuque — -hcTrouldnot be hereto 
scold. Dubuque gave Boies for governor 4,324 majority in 1889, but it is 
always largely Democratic, with counties adjoining on the north and on the 
south which are largely Democratic. 

GEEPlTMANDER. 

By a gerrymander that is not surpassed, if it has a parallel, Dubuque was 
made to go west to grow up with a Republican majority. I have given this 
question of what is called gerrymandering some thought, and feel myself 
fully competent to speak. I have taken maps of several of the states, and in 
connection therewith studied the polities of the different counties and locali- 
ties, and applied the law of permutation to the different groupings that have 
been and might have been made. If there be in the whole United States 
anything that equals the second and third Iowa districts I have failed to 
find it. 

It requires but little mathematics and but little analyzation to see that the 
gentleman from the third Iowa district could never liaA^e occupied the seat he 
now warms had the Legislature of his own state had an eye to contiguity and 
symmetry of territory, rather than to political results. Without any intention 
of being personal, I hope I may be pardoned for calling the attention of this 
House and of the country to the configuration of the third Iowa district. That 
all may make a map and easily understand, let me state, Dubuque County, the 
home of the gentleman, gives a Democratic majority of from three to four 
thousand. It lies on the east side of the state, and is bounded b}' the Missis- 
sippi River. Adjoining on the north and adjoining on the south are strong 
Democratic counties, giving a thousand majority or more each. 

In fact, the territory to the right and to the left of Dubuque is strongly 
Democratic. It requires an expert manipulator to get that county into a 
Republican district. A true disciple of the elder Gerry. Evidently, there was 
that ehai'acter of man or men in the Iowa Legislature that stood godfather to 
that district. That any one may make a map of the district, let me premise. 
The most of the counties in Iowa, and especially in that district, are rectan- 
gular in foiTH, and are approximately square. There are nine counties in the 



182 TUB ^LMGnoi^ MIL. 

district, which, for simplification, I will designate by numbers from i to 9, 
Dubuque I will designate No. 1 ; No. 2 lies immediately west of 1, and 3 
immediately west of 2, and 4 immediately west of 3, while 5 is just north of 4, 
6 is immediately west of 5, and 7 immediately west of 6, 8 immediately west 
of 7, and 9 immediately south of 7. 

Make the counties an inch square on the map, follow the directions, and 
you have it full-fledged like Pallas from the brain of Jove. When completed, 
behold the picture — ' ' hold the mirror up to nature " — and say that an Iowa 
legislature is not "up to snuff." "Why Dubuque was not attached to the 
Democratic counties running down the river and made to include the first 
four of the six Democratic counties in the Democratic Gibraltar — the second 
— represented here by our friend Hayes, can probably be told by the gentle- 
man from Dubuque, or some Republican from Dubuque, who was ambitious 
to come to Congress. 

That all may know that the Legislature of Iowa did not exhaust its knowl- 
edge of permutation or power of combination in the making of the third dis- 
trict, they need only examine a map of the six counties in the second district. 
Take note of the large Democratic majorities in each, and observe how those 
counties are made to wind around so as to leave for utilization all counties 
giving Republican majorities. 

Beginning with the county right south of Dubuque and running down the 
river one county wide until four Democratic counties are taken in and a Re- 
publican one is reached, and there turning, and still going it one county wide, 
to the west, northwest, and north, like the half of a letter S, so as to include 
nothing but Democratic territory, and blocked together, because not able to 
overcome the vote, and carefully leaving out all Republican territory that it 
might be utilized elsewhere. These two Iowa districts, the second and third, 
so far as symmetry and configuration go, are perfect monstrosities. Nothing 
in the United States can possibly surpass them. The brand of Cain is upon 
them. 

Again, look at the Iowa session laws for 1888. Examine how the state is 
apportioned for legislative purposes. After fixing 24,000 inhabitants as the 
basis of one representative sec how dozens of little Republican counties in the 
northwest part of the state with less than 10,000 inhabitants each are given a 
representative, while Democratic counties in the eastern part of the state 
with four times the population are only given one representative. But for 
this unequal apportionment, not Hon. William B. Allison, but a Democrat, 
would be representing Iowa in the other end of the Capitol to-day. 

ILLINOIS. 

Let us now cross the Mississippi River and stop in the Sucker state. Illi- 
nois in point of territory is about as wide east and west as Indiana. It extends 
farth6r north and some little farther south than Indiana. If a line be drawn 
from the northwest corner of Indiana straight west to the Iowa line the terri- 
tory to the north of that line, including Cook County Avith its four Crongress- 
men, and the fifth, sixth and seventh Congressional districts, will contain the 
Republican majority of the state. The territory to the south of that line, a 



THE ELECTION BILL. 183 

tritio lariier thau Indiana, and having tlie same number of Congressmen, tliir- 
teen. is and lias been Democratic. Anytliing like a fair apportionment of that 
part of the state would give the Democrats a majority of those congressmen. 

But the skill of the Illinois I^egislature in the power of combination and 
in the knowledge of permutation, piles the Democratic majority in that part 
of the state into the twelfth, thirteenth, seventeenth and nineteenth districts. 
Take a map and examine the shape of some of these Illinois districts ; espe- 
cially examine the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth. AYhen you do, keep 
mum about the districts just east of the Wabash. 

But Ave must pass on. Let us journey to the East and see if the same meth- 
ods prevail there. 

IS^EW YOKE. 

How is it in the Empire state 1 If we are con-ectly informed, the five 
counties of Xew York, Kings, Westchester, Queens and Richmond, all con^ 
tiguous and in the same circle, including the cities of New York and Brook- 
lyn and the New York environs, always Democratic, and the county of Albany, 
with its more than 200,000 people, always Democratic, have fully if not more 
than one-half the population of New York state, and have had for some time. 
This, to say nothins of a county here and there that is Democratic, like Schor- 
harie, Chemung, Seneca, Greene, Rockland, etc. Yet Only fifteen out of 
thirty-four congressmen upon this floor are Democrats. And proportionately 
no larger number of Democrats in the state legislatures that have been elected 
from year to year. To prevent justice being done the Republican Legislatures 
of that state have for years refused to make any new apportionments. While 
the state for the last twenty years has gone Democratic oftener than it has 
Republican, yet by the suppression of the Democratic vote in the legislative 
apportionment two Republican United States senators continue to misrepre- 
sent the people of that state in the highest deliberative body in the world. 

Gentlemen upon that side who are opposed to a minority ruling a 
majority can find a good field for missionary work hero in this great center of 
population. 

CONNECTICUT. 

How is it with the state of Connecticut, in the state of "steady habits?" 
At the biennial elections for the last twenty years the Democratic candidates 
have passed under the string ahead of the Republicans oftener than Republi- 
cans have passed under ahead of them. At but one election in all that time, 
at the election in 1874, have the Democrats been able to carry the Legislature, 
That Legislature elected William W. Eaton along term senator and William 
H. Barnum a short term senator, the only representation the Democrats of 
that state have been able to get at the other end of the capitol since the war. 

In 1876 the Democratic candidate for governor had a handsome vote over 
his Republican opponent, yet in the Legislature, on joint ballot tho Republi- 
cans had 37 majority. In 1882 the Democrats elected the governor, but lost 
the Legislature. Again, in 1884, 1886 and 1888, the Democratic candidate for 



184 THE ELECTION BILL. 

governor had a plurality over his Republican adversary, but because that 
plurality was not a majority over all combined opposition the election went 
into the Legislature and each time the Eepublican was chosen over the Dem- 
ocrat. 

But let us give the gentleman from Connecticut [Mr. Russell] an opportu- 
nity to be heard. He says : 

'* But plurality to Republican or Democrat, it makes no difference, except 
a majority vote be cast for some one candidate, the Legislature — the repre- 
sentative body of local government — elects the state oflELcials in Connecticut. 

'• However much some gentlemen may criticize this f?)rm of state elections 
in my state, yet none can point to a single instance where the state has been 
misgoverned or oppressed by its state ofl&cials, or where the people of either 
party have failed to accord honor and respect and obedience to the political 
results attained under the constitution of the State of Connecticut. Our con- 
stitution in its present form is the direct descendant of that notable instru- 
ment which in 1G39 bore the stamp of a settlement in Connecticut, and was 
the first written Democratic constitution on record. 

" This constitution of 1639, to use the expression of the writer on Connec- 
ticut in the series of American commonwealths. Professor Alexander John- 
son, 'was the starting-point for the Democratic development which has 
since gained control of our commonwealth, and now makes the essential 
feature of our commonwealth government.' The good old commonwealth 
of Connecticut has stood firm to her constitution, and has grafted her 
traditions and principles upon the vast territory of the "West, until they have 
been embodied in larger and mightier commouAvealths. She cannot now be 
construed, after her peaceful and prosperous experience of two hundred and 
fifty years under her present form of legal government, into an excuse or a 
palliation, or a precedent for Southern operations during the last twenty-five 
years. These operations in crime and trickery have attempted the subjuga- 
tion of all government, local and national. In effect these operations have 
oppressed a free citizenship, and have destroyed a free suffrage. 

********* 

"The town representation which the state of Connecticut has and always 
had in the hovise branch of its Legislature, that form of local representation is 
an old, an honored, and respected one in my state. It has much to recommend 
it, and I believe it is admitted to be the most complete recognition of the 
principle of local government. ' In Connecticut it was the towns that cre- 
ated the commonwealth.' The commonwealth still continues a combination 
of towns, and in each member of the combination remains to-day the political 
power for the exercise of which the state must first establish its clear and just 
right. The towns of Connecticut stand in much the same relation to the com- 
monwealth as the states do to this Union, and it seems strange for gentlemen 
contending against what they imagine may be an infringement or subversion 
of local government by the Federal government to instance Connecticut as a 
place Avhere there is a misrepresentation of home rule, as they call it." 

"The Legislature, the representative body of local government, elects the 



THE ELECTION BILL. 185 

state officials in Connecticut," says the gentleman. '' The representative 
body of local government," remember you. We ■will analyze that later on. 
But, says the gentleman : ♦ 

'• However much some gentlemen may criticise this form of state elections 
in my state, yet none can point to a single instance where the state has 
been misgoverned, or oppressed, by its state officials, or where the people 
of either party have failed to accord honor and respect and. obedience to 
the political results attained under the constitution of the state of Con- 
necticut.'' 

Certainly, the method of government in the South is much better than that 
which existed under the carpet-bag regimes ; much better than is likely to be 
brought about by this federal interference. 

Gentlemen, as I understand them, do not so much complain of the method. 
of self-government at the South, so long as confined to their local affairs. 
Speaker Reed, in his article in the June number of the North American 
Review, says: 

" Every Southern man knows that there is no possibility of negro domina- 
tion in the United States. No federal taxes will ever be imposed by the 
negro. No federal control is within his power. If all this wrong at the 
ballot-box be needed to preserve a proper local state government to keep 
the Caucasian supreme in the state, not a living soul can dare to say that 
the same wi'ong, or any other, is necessary for Caucasian supremacy in the 
United States." 

"What gentlemen seem to complain of is the fact that the power or suprem- 
acy of party here is afiected by what they afi"ect to believe so very wrong in 
the South. The poor negro they care nothing about. It is only to the extent 
that they may be able to use him to pull the chestnuts out of the fire that they 
feel any interest in him. The South may count him out as much as they 
please in matters purely local, but they must not shift or affect the party 
strength here. 

We may retort, we do not so much complain of the methods of Con- 
necticut or New York Republicans or Republicans in other states so long 
as confined to Connecticut, New York; or other states, but only when our 
party strength is affected or party supremacy is shifted in either branch of 
Congress. 

In fact, sirs, I do not believe that this side of the house is disposed to crit- 
icise or find fault about these matters at all. For one, I believe that what 
Connecticut docs is none of our business. "We call your attention to these 
matters, however, not for the purpose of complaining, but for the pur- 
pose of showing you that your demands are unreasonable and unjust, 
and that your complaints are without proper foundation, and cannot be 
assented to. 

But we are not done with the gentleman from Connecticut [Mr. Russel]. 
In his judgment all states represented in the Congress of the United States by 
Democrats are all wi-ong ; and all represented by Republicans are all right, 
and that chiefest among the elect is Connectictit. In 1888 Cleveland camod 
Connecticut over Harrison. The Democratic candidate for governor had more 



m 



THE ELECTION BILL. 



votes than his Republican competitor, but not over that competitor and the 
Prohibition candidate too. The Legislature elected at the same election A^as 
Eepublican. By how much majority? In the Senate 17 Eepublicans to 7 
Democrats were elected. In the House 152 Eepublicans to 96 Democrats, 
Majority on joint ballot 66. The Legislature put the Republican in for 
governor. 

To show something of the workings of the town system (in Indiana we 
call them townships), of which the gentleman boasts so highly, we have 
l^repared a table, showing the number of voters — Republican, Democratic, 
Prohibition, and all others, all told — in 31 towns, each of which elected 2 
representatives to the lower branch of the state Legislature — in all 62, all 
Republicans; and 49 towns, each of which elected 1 representative — 49 more 
— to that Legislature, all Republicans, in the aggregate 111 legislators ; and 
showing the number of voters — Republican, Democratic, Prohibition, and all 
others, all told — in 4 towns, each of which elected 2 representatives to the 
same Legislature — in all 8, all Democrats. 

Eighty Republican towns, with 31,624 voters, all told, electing 111 Repub- 
licans, while 4 Democratic towns, with 44,431 voters — 12,807 more votes than 
in the 80 Republican towns — and yet elect only 8 Democrats. It takes 5,554 
voters in these Democratic towns to elect 1 member to the Legislature, while 
in these Republican towns that many votes elect between 19 and 20 members. 

I take it the statistics I use are reliable. I get them from the annual 
Connecticut State Register and Manual for 1890, as found on pages 324 to 332, 
inclusive. 

Following is the table showing number of votes of all parties : 

Itepublican Towns. 



Name of County and Town. 



Yoters. 



Repre- 
sent- 
atives. 



HAETFORD. 

East Hartford 

Glastonbury 

Suifield 

Windsor , 

East "Windsor 

Wethersfield 

Granby 

Hartland 

Berlin 

Canton 

Plainville 

West Hartford 

Marlborough 

Thirteen towns 



929 


2 


924 


2 


763 


2 


699 


2 


647 


3 


424 


2 


359 


2 


169 


2 


587 




570 




497 




407 




89 





4.924 



21 



TBE MLECtlOn MLL, 



187' 



Name of County and Town. 


Yoters. 


Repre- 
sent- 
atives. 


NEW HAVEN. 

Guilford 


690 
885 
863 
711 
395 
377 
299 
231 
221 
199 
129 
117 
108 


2 


Oranee 




Bvanfoi'd 




SeyDiour 




North Haven 




Madison 




Soilthbury 




East Haven 




North Branford 




Wfeodbridge 




Middlehury 




Prospect 




Wolcott 




Thirteen towns 


5,222 


14 






FAIEFIELD. 

Fairfield 


845 
503 
331 
807 
755 
613 
413 
248 
241 
207 
190 
168 


2 


Ridgefield 


2 


Redding 




Huntington 




Bethel 




New Canaan 




Wilton 




Brookfield 




Easton 




Weston 




Sherman ..'. 




New Fairfield 




Twelve towns 


5,321 


15 






NEW LONDON. 


585 
399 
382 
549 
268 
210 
210 
147 


2 


Lebanon ; 


2 


North Stonington 


2 


Gris wold 








Sprague 








Franklin 








Eight towns 


2,750 


11 






WINDHAM. 

Putnam , 


999 
736 
601 
517 
272 
351 
219 
177 
147 
134 


2 


Plainfield 


2 


Thompson 


2 


Woodstock 


2 


Pomfret 


2 


Brooklyn 


1 


Sterling 


1 


Eastford 


1 


Chaplin 


1 


Scotland 


1 








4,153 


15 







THE ELEdTtOl^ mZL. 



Name 


OF County and Town. 


Yoters. 


Eepre- 

sent- 
atives. 


Woodbury 


LITCHFIELD. 


460 
328 
281 
241 
748 
333 
254 
164 
132 


2 


Norfolk 


2 


Barkhamsted 


2 


Harwinton 


2 


Thompson 




Kent 




Roxbury 




Bethlehem 




Warren - 










Nine towns . . 


2,941 


13 




MIDDLESEX, 




Saybrook 


339 
224 
407 
367 
313 
305 
238 
216 


2 


Durham 


2 


Cromwell 




Clinton 




Chester 








Westbrook 




Middlefield 










Eight towns . 


2,409 


10 




TOLLAND. 




Mansfield 


431 
315 
282 
270 
214 
125 
117 


2 




2 


Tolland 


2 




2 


Wellington 


2 


Bolton 


1 


Andover 


1 








Sev3n towns . 


1,754 


12 







RECAPITULATION. 



Hartford County, thirteen towns... 
New Haven County, thirteen toAvns 

Fairfield County, twelve towns 

New London County, eight towns . . 

Windham County, ten towns 

Litchfield County, nine towns 

Middlesex County, eight towns 

Tolland County, seven towns 

Total, eighty towns 




THE ELECTION BILL. 

Democratic Toiuns. 



189 



Name of County and Town. 



Repre- 
sent- 
atives. 




New Haven 

Hartford 

Bridgeport 

Waterbury 

Four towns 



"When a Democratic candidate for governor or for any other state office, 
with a plurality over all his competitors only, is compelled to go before the 
joint ballot of a Connecticut Legislature, the lower house of which is elected 
by a rotten borough system, such as shown above, the gentleman from that 
state says, "The Legislature, the representative body of local government, 
elects."' 

"Where can the gentleman go in this country to find such a mockery of 
representative government? Yet, if it suits him and his people, I do not see 
that we have a right to complain, even though it does result in keeiiing two 
Republican senators in the other end of the capitol, with power to assist in 
forging chains upon the balance of us. For one, I say, go it ; the people of 
Connecticut arc more interested in the system than I am. 

The honorable member tells us that this represents the equality of the 
towns, but he tells us the Senate is the " popular branch " of their Legislat- 
ure; that the '^ Senate is based on population;" that "the division of the 
state into twenty-four senatorial districts is as equitable as is possible accord- 
ing to population." 

In this assertion how is he borne out by the facts 1 Though the Democrats 
carried the state for Cleveland in 1888, as above stated, the Republicans 
elected seventeen and the Democrats only seven senators. How ''equitable 
as possible " the state is divided for senatorial districts may be seen by study- 
ing the votes polled — Democratic, Republican, Prohibitionist, and all others, 
all told — at the election of 1888. In that '• equitable" division not only the 
knowledge of permutation and power of combination is shown in a mark^ 
degree, but Democratic districts are made much more populous than Repub- 
lican districts — on an average almost twice as populous. The total vote — 
Republican, Democratic, Prohibition, and all other — polled in the several 
senatorial districts of the state at the election in 1888 is as follows : 



EEPUBLIGAN DISTRICTS. 

Yote polled. 

Second G.014 

Third 6,011 

Fourth 7,442 

Seventh 8,009 



190 THE ELECTION BILL. 

Tote polled. 

Tenth 5,358 

Eleventh 4,677 

Twelfth , 6,868 

Thirteenth 6, 973 

Fifteenth , 7,789 

Sixteenth 3,733 

Seventeenth 3,889 

Eighteenth 4,331 

Twentieth 3,818 

Twenty-first 4,106 

Twenty-second 4,104 

Twenty-third 2,784 

Twenty-fonrth 2,585 

The other seven districts, the first, fifth, sixth, eighth, ninth, fourteenth 
and nineteenth, were Democratic, and the total vote in them was as follows: 

Tote polled. 

First district 11,160 

Fifth district 8, 138 

Sixth district 7, 929 

Eighth district 17,645 

Ninth district 5,845 

Fourteeth district 9,094 

Nineteenth district 4,132 

It will be seen that the eighth district, which is largely Democratic, polled 
more votes than all the five Republican districts, numbered from twenty to 
twenty-four, inclusive. 

It will not do to say that, such division is as " equitable " as it is possible 
to make it. To be convinced that it is as inequitable as it is possible to make 
it, one only need take the town map of the state of Connecticut, found in 
the Connecticut State Register and Manual for 1890, page 425, and give it a 
little study as to the population and politics of the several towns. He will 
readily see that a disciple of Elbridge Gerry had a large hand in the districting. 

MASSACHUSETTS. 

Adjoining Connecticut and made out of much the same kind of cloth is 
Massachusetts, the grand old commonwealth, a commonwealth that gives this 
Congress a Lodge, instead of lodging him in some vast wilderness. And 
Lodge lodges this bill here and wants to lodge its machinery all over the 
country. A true representative of his state, a state that has produced many 
learned men, but few statesmen ; many narrow treads, but few broad gauges. 

Foolish in her own self-conceit, she is cranky in the belief that everybody 
is a heathen except herself; that she knows what is good for the heathen, and 
that she is the chosen instrument of God to proselyte the heathen. Her old- 
time reliable Republican majorities may hav e lead the unwary to overlook the 
fact that her statesmen need to or would deal in anything but fair apportion- 



THE ELECTION BILL. 191 

ments. A glimpse of the Congressional Directory, showing the disproportion 
of votes polled in the different Congressional districts, coupled with the 
further fact that it was necessary to put parts of Suffolk county into four con- 
gressional districts ; parts of iliddlesex into four ; parts of Worcester into 
four; parts of Hampden into four; parts of Norfolk into three, and parts of 
Essex into three, and parts of still others into two, should suffice to convince 
the thoughtful. 

This thing of fairness and honesty in elections Massachusetts seems to 
think is good medicine to prescribe for others, but very poor medicine for 
herself. 

Her anxiety to adopt any method to beat the balance of the world may 
be gathered from the folio sving, taken from the Boston Herald last winter, 
when the Kepul)lican party were trying to establish a protectorate over the 
state of Ohio to prevent the Democratic Legislature of that state from seeing 
a former Eepublican Legislature on the subject of gerrymandering and going 
it one better : 

' ' Massachusetts has probably used a greater variety of methods in choos- 
ing her presidential electors than any other state has tried. The first method 
tried was that of choosing them by popular vote. The state was divided into 
eight districts for the choice of representatives in Congress and presidential 
electors. Each district selected two candidates, and the general court, by 
joint ballot, selected one of the two, adding two electors at large, chosen by 
the Legislature, making the ten votes to which Massachusetts was entitled. 

' ' At the next presidential election another method was adopted. The 
state was entitled to sixteen electors. Four districts were created, two having 
five electors each, aud two districts having three each, no electors being 
chosen at large. Each district voted for its own electors only. Only five 
electors succeeded in securing an election by the people, and the Legislature 
chose eleven to fill the vacancies. 

"In 1796, the number of electors being sixteen, as before, the state was 
divided into fourteen districts, each choosing one elector by popular vote, 
while the Legislature chose two at large and also filled nine vacancies in dis- 
tricts where the people failed to make a choice. 

" When the fourth presidential election took place a still different plan 
was adopted. The Legislature assumed the power to choose the electors, and 
selected one from each congressional district and two at large. The electors 
were authorized to till any vacancies which there might be when they came 
together. This plan was a political scheme to get a solid electoral vote from 
Massachusetts for Mr. Adams, which could not have been accomplished if the 
elector^ had been chosen by districts, for Mr. Jefferson had many friends in 
the state. 

'•Four years later a still different plan was adopted. It is said to have 
been devised by the friends of Mr. Adams. The people were dissatisfied with 
the Legislature for having taken away their right to choose electors iu 1800, 
and, in order to satisfy them, and still hold the solid vote of the state for ilr. 
Adams, a law was passed providing for the choice of the electors — nineteen 
in number — by the people on one general ticket. When the votes were 



192 THE ELECTION BILL. 

counted the friends of Mr. Adams were astonished to find that the entire 
Adams ticket had "been beaten and that Jefferson electors had been chosen. 

"When the election of 1808 approached it found the Legislature in the 
hands of the Federalists, who were determined to secure the electoral vote of 
Massachusetts for Mr. Jefferson's opponent. They accordingly did not pass 
any law authorizing the people to choose electors, but adopted a joint order 
providing for an election by the Legislature. If they had passed a law for this, 
Governor Sullivan would have vetoed it, but the legislative order did not 
require his approval. The Legislature then chose a solid Pinckney electoral 
college. 

"For the choice of electors in 1812, the state was again divided into dis- 
tricts, six in number, having from one to six electors each. The plan was a 
compromise, the Senate and House being of different political complexion. 
The electors chosen were aH'Clinton men, however. 

" At the next presidential election the Legislature selected the electors, 
and in 1820 the people again chose them. Each congressional district selected 
one elector, and two were chosen at large. In 1824 the electors were all voted 
for by the voters of the whole state, the entire fifteen being upon one ticket." 

A glimpse of a county and congressional map of other states controlled by 
Kepublican Legislatures will disclose the work of the gerrymander. But time 
will not permit a further analysis now. 

INDIANA. 

I must, however, before leaving the subject, not overlook Indiana, my own 
state. Indiana seems to be a thorn in the flesh of gentlemen upon that side. 
Even the great Speaker, who holds in the hollow of his hand the Lilliputians 
upon that side, and who by a wink or nod, or if that is riot observed, by the 
use of a page or messenger, can bring to time any failure to servility, in the 
North American Eeview for June said : 

" Our apportionments of congressional districts are by no means utterly 
fair, but there is a limitation to injustice, beyond which no party dares to go, 
except in Indiana, where 4,000 majority in the state gives the Republicans 
three out of thirteen congressmen." 

What seems to Dr. Reed so wanting in equality in Indiana, when made a 
rule of conduct by Republicans, to him would be evidence of fairness and 
statesmanship. 

A study of a county and congressional map of Indiana, with the Demo- 
cratic and Republican vote therein, as compared with a study of like maps 
and votes in Illinois, Iowa, or the Ohio arrangement that sent its sixteen Re- 
publicans and five Democrats to this Congress, will be to the favor of Indiana 
every time. Or if compared with the last apportionment of the state made 
by the Republicans of that state it will appear as the very embodiment of 
faii'ness. Indiana is somewhat more favorable to an apportionment to secure 
Democratic members than it is to secure Republican members, growing out 
of the fact that on the east side of the state are four counties, Wayne, Ran- 
dolph, Delaware and Henry, lying in a square with an aggregate Republican 
majority of near ten thousand. 



THE ELECTION BILL. 193 

These. counties by reason of location, contiguity and symmetry of territory, 
naturally go together, in any fair apportionment of the state, from a temtorial 
standpoint, in the making up of a congressional district. Randolph and 
Wayne are bounded by the Ohio state line, while DelaTvare and Henry adjoin 
them on the Avest. Any apportionment that separates them does A'iolence to 
territorial arrangement. These counties are in the sixth district, so- ably 
represented for years by Hon. Thomas M. Browne. Though in 1876, and 
again 1878, the first two times Mr Browne was elected, Delaware and Henry 
were not in the district, but only Randolph and "'kTayne. The Republicans in 
1873, to utilize the Republican yote of Delaware and Henry elsewhere, and to 
the end that the large majoiities of Randolph and "Wayne might be made to 
do good work, they were put with. Union, Franklin and Dearborn counties, 
three counties on the Ohio state line to the south, and Avhich with Randolph 
and Wayne formed a line fiye counties long from north to south, and running 
from the northeast corner of Randolph, south on the Ohio state line to tlie 
Ohio riyer, forming a sort of shoestring district. 

For symmetry of shape and contiguity of territory the district would not 
compare at all with the present districting. 

Taking this sixth district out, and the territory composing the other twelye 
districts as a whole was Democratic at the election in 1888 by more than 7,000 
majority, and has been Democratic at eyery election for more than twenty 
years. At the election in 1888 the Republicans carried the state for president 
and for goyernor by about 2,300 plurality, but without this sixth district they 
would haye lost the state by more than 7,000. (This district, because of its 
Quaker influence and abolition sentiment in ante-helhun days, was dubbed the 
" Burnt district."') The territory to the south, to the west, and to the north 
is Democratic. 

In Indiana we apportion our state for legislatiye ^and for congressional 
purposes eyery six years, in pursuance of a proyision of our state constitution. 
The apportionments with which I am familiar are those made by the Republi- 
cans in 1867 and 1873, and those made by the Democrats in 1879 and in 1885. Of 
these I know whereof I speak. I was in the Legislature of 1867, and in 1879, 
and again in 1885 I did some of the figuring upon which were based the 
apportionments then made. And I know that skill in the power of combina- 
tion, when applied with a knowledge of permutation, was not only not 
exhausted, but the limit was not nearly reached in either of those last appor- 
tionments. 

Seyeral places in the state transfers could be made of counties from dis- 
trict to district, and without any yiolence to contiguity or symmetry of terri- 
toiy or equality of poi^ulation, that would greatly strengthen some of the 
districts that elected Democrats to this Congress by meager majorities. I 
think I know that in the last Republican apportionment, the one made in 
1875, the limit of Republican ingenuity was not only reached but exhausted. 

I haye already said that Republican and Democratic majorities were so 
distributed in the counties throughout the state as to make it easier to make 
Democratic districts than Republican districts. T.et at the election in ] 876. 
the first election after the last Republican gerrj-mander, the Democrats elected 

13 



194 THE ELECTION BILL. 

their governor and state ofl&cers by majorities ranging between five and six 
thousand; they gave Tilden for president a majority of over 6,000, and had 
an aggregate majority on congressmen of over 7,000. Still the Republicans 
secm'ed nine out of the thirteen congressmen. Only two of the nine had less 
than 1,000 majority-. Those two had majorities of 276 and 332, respectively. 
So if the Democrats had carried the state by a majority of 10,000 it would not 
have overcome the two smaller majorities of 276 and 322, and would not have 
secured more than the four members out of the thirteen. 

Again, in 1878, the Democrats carried the state by 13,736 on state officers, 
and by 13.255 on congressmen. In the face of this big majority the Republi- 
cans elected seven and the Democrats only six congressmen. By a close shave 
the Democrats obtained a working majority in the lower house, and by the 
assistance of one Greenbacker, of Republican antecedents, had twenty-six 
out of the fifty members in the Senate — the least number under our constitu- 
tion that can pass a bill. 

This being the year for redistricting the Democrats apportioned the state, 
but were compelled to do it by the grace of the Greenbacker in the Senate. 
At the next election, 1880, the Republicans carried the state by a majority of 
6,000 (about the same majority the Democrats had in 1876), elected eight 
out of tbe thirteen members of Congress, and fifty-seven out of the one hun- 
dred members of the lower house, while the Greenbackers held the balance of 
power in the Senate. On joint ballot, however, the Republicans had a ma- 
jority of twelve over all, and easily elected Benjamin Harrison to the United 
States Senate. 

Again, in 1885, the Democrats, having a Avorking majority in both branches 
of the Legislature, apportioned the state, but possessed with a spirit of fair- 
ness unknown to their opponents so districted that the Republicans at the 
next election, 1886, elected seven out of the thirteen members of Congress, 
and a majority in the house branch of the Legislature on a majority of lesg 
than 2,500 in the state. The Democratic hold-overs in the Senate gr/. e them 
one majority on joint ballot. 

The House unseated a Democrat and the Senate unseated a Republican, 
leaving still one majority on joint ballot. That one majority lost Harrison 
his own successorship and made Hon. David Turpie United States senator. 
At the next election, 1888, on the same apportionment, the Democrats cap 
tm'cd ten out of the thirteen congressmen. And this is spoken of and criti- 
cised as unfair with about as much bitterness of feeling as the supposed so- 
called frauds in the South. 

Sir, since the daj's of Elbridge Gerry all parties have endeavored to make 
the most that could reasonabl)^ bo made out of an apportionment. Had I 
made the Indiana apportionment I would have placed the Republican majori- 
ties into two districts, and instead of ten we would have had eleven Demo- 
crats members in the Fifty-first Congress. This could have been done with 
less ingenuity than that shown iu the last Republican apportionment. In so 
doing equality of population and symmetr}' of territorial configuration could 
have been maintained better than our present districting ; better than tbo 



THE ELECTION BILL. 195 

Illinois or Iowa districting, and much better than the last Republican emenda- 
tion in Indiana. 

These methods may be unfair, and to that extent wrong, but they will 
continue as long as men remain, sellish. They are largely, if not fully, offset 
by each other, so far as parties arc concerned, as are all other fraudulent 
methods. These wrongs should be corrected, but not by centralizing the 
power to coiTect. That onl)' strengthens and makes one-sided the power to 
perpetuate wrong. If we ever lose our liberties it will not be by local irregu- 
larities here and there, but by centralizing the irregularities all along the 
line. 

Pass this bill, Mr. Speaker! "What does it mean? What is it intended to 
mean? Centralization; more power in the few and less power in the many ; 
the use of Sambo and Pomp to pull the chestnuts out of the fire. And that 
means Eastern Republicans and bondholders in the saddle and the Western 
and Southern farmers afoot ; the monopolist on. top and the laboring man on 
the bottom ; higher taxes to emich the millionaire ; build up the rich, op- 
press the poor; silver demonetized, to continue a commodity, not money; 
gold the sole standard of values, and it continuing to increase in value. 

That the jDresidential election in 1888 was carried through 
the corrupt influence of money handed out by the agents 
of the Republican party^ cannot be successfully con- 
troverted. The remarks of Mr. Elnoe, of Tennessee, in 
the House of Representatives^ June 28th, 1890, contains 
much valuable information upon this question. In sj)eak- 
ing upon the election bill, among other things, he said : 

It was born of political necessity and its father is monopoly. Its forerun- 
ner and accoucher was the Hon. Thomas B. Reed, Speaker of this House, who 
attended the feast of Beltshazzar, at Pittsburg, Pa., some weeks ago, and to 
the representatives of monopoly there assembled proclaimed the coming of 
this bill. He declared the purpose of the Republican party to do "its own 
registration, its own voting, and its own certification."' John the Baptist 
when he came preaching in the wilderness, was not surer of his mission than 
was this modern prophet of a new system of political government. Mr. 
Speaker Reed on that occasion was the spokesman and prophet of the allied 
monopolies, and he had a right to know the obligation of the bond between 
the powers which bought the majority in this Congress and the control of this 
administration at the last election, and the ruling and controlling powers 
here. 

Mr. Speaker, I here and now proclaim my earnest and solemn belief that 
this bill owes its presence here to-day to the fact that the monopolies which 
bought the last election demand it as a safeguard and protection against the 
growing spirit of Democracy among the people. 

I challenge the denial here and now that the election of 1888 was bought 
"^ith a price by the monopolies and trusts of this country. On that point I 



196 THE ELECTION BILL. 

desire to introduce the confidential circular of Mr. James P. Foster, president 
of tlie Republican League of the United States. It wjas the signal gun of the^ 
campaign of 1888. Hear him : 

[Confidential.] 

Headquaeteks Republican League of the United States, 

New York, May 25, 1888. 

My Dear Sir — The Republican League of the United States desires to- 
bring you face to face with the startling fact that the coming presidential 
election is not to be fought on the old party lines which have heretofore 
divided Democrats and Republicans, but upon the direct issue of free-trade vs. 
protection. We will win this tight if you will do your share and help us tc 
finish what wo have begun. We want money, and want it at once. 

It may not be of your personal knowledge, but it is a fact, nevertheless, 
that the manufacturers of the United States who are most benefited by our 
tarifi" laws have been the least willing to contribute to the success of the party 
which gave them protection and which is about to engage in a life-and-death 
struggle with free-trade. 

A Republican United States senator, from a state which never had a Demo- 
cratic representative in either House of Congress or a Democratic state 
officer, in speaking of the well-known disposition of the manufacturing inter- 
ests to lock up its money, fold its hands, and look on while somebody else 
fights for its success, says : 

"The campaign which we are about to enter will concern, more than any- 
body else, the manufacturers of this country. They have hitherto been very 
laggard in their contributions to the Republican cause. In fact, if I could 
punish them without punishing the cause of protection itself, I would con- 
sign them to the hottest place I could think of on account of their craven 
parsimony. If this class of people do not care to contribute to the success of 
the Republican party, they are welcome to try their chances under a Demo- 
cratic administration ; I can stand it as long as thef^ can. 

"In fact, I have it from the best possible source that the manufacturers of 
Pennsylvania, who are more highly protected than anybody else, and who. 
make large fortunes every year when times are prosperous, practically give 
nothing toward the maintenance of the ascendency of the Republican party. 
Of course 1 shall not violate what I consider to be a proper principle of action, 
but if I had my way aboiit it I would put the manufacturers of Pennsylvania 
under the fire and fry all the fat out of them. If the Mills tariff bill comes to 
the Senate there will be some votes cast there which will open the eyes of 
some of these people who have, while gathering their millions, treated the 
Republican party as their humble servant. " 

These are strong words, and bitter, but they are true, and it now remains 
with you and your associates to determine whether they are to be reiterated 
after this campaign is over, and protection has, through your apathy, been 
struck its death-blow. If you give us the means to win the victory we will 
do it. Are you willing '? 

Yours, very truly, 

Jas, P. Foster, President. 



THE ELECTION BILL, 197 

Hear this friend of a pure ballot declare, " "We want monej^, and Arant it at 
once." 

Hear him quote a Eepublican United States senator's declaration, that he 
would -'put the manufacturers of Pennsylvania under the fire and fry all the 
fat out of them." 

Hear him declare, "If you give us the means to win the victory we will 
do it." 

Money, gentlemen, money bought the election of 1888. 

Mr. Quay, the chairman of the national Eepublican campaign committee, 
adopted the suggestion of Mr. Foster. The manufacturers, not only of Penn- 
sylvania, but of the whole country, were put " under the fire," and "the fat 
was fried out of them." 

On this point I call as a witness Hon. John Wanamaker, the distinguished 
politician and statesman, who, for his knowledge of this new branch of state- 
craft, was made the postmaster-general of this pm'chased administration. In 
February, 1889, he said : 

" TThen Quay sent for me 1 was surprised. 1 had no more idea of what he 
wanted with me than you might have if he telegraphed for you. But I knew 
he was not the kind of man to send for me unless he had important business 
with me, so I went. Then he told me that the national Republican commit- 
tee needed money, and his scheme for my raising it. I at first declined to 
have anything to do with it. I had very little hope of defeating Cleveland, 
and still less Mrs. Cleveland, who is justly popular with the whole country, 
and whom I admire greatly myself, and I did not want to get on a sinking 
ship. He urged the matter, told me why he felt sure of carrying the election 
if he had the money. Even then I hesitated, and asked three weeks for con- 
sideration. He agreed, and I talked with our leading manufacturers, men 
whose names are the best in the land — such men as "Washburne, and Amos 
Lawrence's grandson, and a dozen others I could name — men who would 
never have given a dollar for dishonest uses, even if I had been willing to ask 
it, and at the end of the three weeks I told Quay I would undertake to raise 
the money if he would allow us to establish a manufacturers' bureau and have 
a voice in the disposition of the money. I do not mean that we insisted on 
knowing what was done with every dollar of it. I did not want to know. 
"When I sell a suit of clothes I do not insist upon being told just where these 
clothes are going. My responsibility ceases when I furnish a good article at a 
fair price. "What I did insist upon was that I should be able to satisfy the 
men who trusted me with their money that it was used for the purposes for 
which they subscribed it, and that guaranty Mr. Quay gave me. That is how 
there came to be a manufacturers' bureau." 

Here we have the spectacle of a man of excellent reputation engaged in a 
three weeks' struggle with his conscience about using his character as a collat- 
eral to raise money to corrupt the ballot and buy an election. "Who can tell 
what wild dreams of official and social position floated before his mental vis- 
ion during those three we^ks ? Mr. "Wanamaker had been fighting the devil 
manfully for many years, it is said, but when the devil set Quay on him there 
was no Ithuriel spear to touch the toad at his ear and show his ancient enemy 



19§ The election bill. 

in a new form. He made ignorance as to what particular crimes were com- 
mitted througli that money a salve to his conscience. Mr. Wanamaker had a 
good character before he entered politics. He disposed of it very cheap. When 
he quits this cabinet and returns to his store in Philadelphia he will find in the 
stock, to stay, a splendid character badly damaged by fire. 

Now, Mr. Speaker, in corroboration of Mr. Wanamaker I will introduce 
Col. Elliott F. Shepard, editor of the New York Mail and Express, who pub- 
lished the following testimony in his paper of November 22, 1888 : 

' ' Of the money so liberally contributed by the Republicans in this city for 
election expenses, three very large sums were paid out which brought in only 
about 1,350 votes as the result of these expensive negotiations. The Coogan 
labor vote cast for Harrison and Miller amounted to 1,200; the James O'Brien 
protection Democracy vote, 50 ; the John J. O'Brien vote, beyond what is the 
normal vote in the eighth district, to 100 votes. On Saturday before election 
there was paid by the national committee for use in this city to a Republican 
state leader, as we are informed, the great sum of about $150,000, and as none 
of this went to the county committee, it is fair to presume this large sum was 
used in the three negotiations referred to. 

" The success of the Republican party in this city is to be achieved by edu- 
cating the masses in Republican doctrines, by the circulation of the Repub- 
lican newspapers, and the continual holding of mass-meetings ; and we hope 
we have seen the last of attempts to buy votes en bloc, in all which attempts 
for the past twenty-six years we have been buying experience and not votes, 
been filling and trimming the lamps of our opponents and emptying our own." 
Colonel Shepard evidently thinks votes sold too high, that it took too 
largo a block of "fat" to grease such a small " block" of voters. 

I know that a great many people in this country would be disposed to 
discredit this witness, on account of the political rabies from which ho sufiers, 
if he were not so well sustained by corroborating testimony. 1 propose to 
brace him up with one more competent witness, though it will be in the 
nature of cumulative testimony. The Manufacturers Record, of Philadelphia, 
the organ of Mr. Wanamaker's "Manufacturers' Bureau," must be heard cm 
this point. In April, 1889, when the services of patriots who contributed to 
the purchase of this administration were not permitted to pass unmentioned, 
the Record said : 

"It is, therefore, to the men that give the cash that a large, if not the largest 
share of its success is due. These, almost always, are the business men. We 
make the assertion that the money contributed by this (manufacturers') clu'b 
last year had more influence upon the result of the national election than all 
the skill, the ingenuity, the labor, and the wire-pulling of all the professional 
politicians in the city of Philadelphia. We believe this proposition to be 
capable of positive proof. If, therefore, control of patronage is rightly the 
reward o/ victorious efibrt, the right of this club to name the Federal office- 
holders of Philadelphia rests upon solid grounds. * * * The leaders, 
Avc suppose, will claim that they are the men who win victories, and that 
their generalship entitles them to special consideration. But they can Avin 
no triumphs without strong backing in money and votes from the best mem- 



> th:e election bill. 199 

bers of their party. If the politicians had had to fight single-handed the bat- 
tle of last November Mr. Cleveland would now be in the White House. Thej 
were literally smitten with paralysis until the manufacturers and other busi- 
ness men came to the rescue, not only with abundant supplies of money but 
Avith a deitnination to caiTy the day by hard work and actively exerted influ- 
ence. That was how the fight was won." 

The appointment of a postmaster and other important Federal oflicers then 
pending accounts for this very plain and candid claim, that those who bought 
the victory should have control of the offices. 

I do not know, but suppose, of course, that a man so eminent for his sense 
of justice and fair dealing as the president recognized this claim upon the 
fruits of the purchase. 

I now come to the history, not of a contributor, but of a distributor, 
Hon. W. "W. Dudley, better known as Blocks-of-five Dudley. The infamous 
" blocks-of-five letter" itself is the best evidence Of the use made of the fund 
in Indiana. Let the letter speak for itself: 

Headqttartees Republican National Committee, 

91 Fifth Avenue, New York, October 2ith. 
[Executive Committee: M. S. Quay, chairman; J. S. Clarkson, vice-chair- 
man ; J. S. Eassett, secretary; William W. Dudley, treasurer; John C. New, 
A. L. Conger, G. A. Hobart, Samuel Fessenden, George E. Davis, J. Man- 
chester Haynes, M. H. De Yoimg, William Cassius Goodloe.] 
Dear Sir: I hope you have kept copies of the lists sent me. Such 
information is very valuable, and should be used to great advantage. It has 
enabled me to demonstrate to friends that with proper assistance Indiana is 
surely Republican for governor and president, and has resulted, as I hoped it 
would, in securing for Indiana the aid necessary. Your committee will cer- 
tainly receive from Chairman Houston the assistance necessary to hold our 
floaters and doubtful voters, and gain enough of the other kind to give Harri- 
son and Morton 10,000 plurality. 

New York is now safe beyond peradventure for the Republican presidential 
ticket ; Connecticut likewise. In short, every Northern state, except, perhaps, 
New Jersey, though we still hope to carry that state. Harrison's majority in 
the electoral college Avill not be less than 100. Make our friends in each 
precinct wake up to the fact that only boodle and fraudulent votes and false 
counting of returns can beat us in the state. Write each of our precinct cor- 
respondents : Eirst. To find out who has Democratic boodle, and steer the 
Democratic workers to them, and make them pay big prices for their own men. 
Second. Scan the election officers closely, and make sure to have no man on 
the board whose integrity is even questionable, and insist on Republicans 
watching every movement of the election officers. Third. See that our 
workers know every voter entitled to a vote, and let no one else even ofi"er to 
vote. Fourth. Divide the floaters into blocks of five, and put a trusted man, 
with necessary funds, in charge of these five, and make him responsible that 
none get away, and that all vote our ticket. Fifth. Make a personal appeal to 
your best business men to pledge themselves to devote the entire day, Novem- 
ber 6, to work at the polls ; that is, to be present at the polls with tickets. 



200 • THP. election bill. 

They will be astonished to see how utterly dumfounded the ordinary Deijio- 
cratic election bummer will he, and how quickly he will disappear The result 
will fully justify the sacrifice of time and comfort, and will be a source of 
satisfaction afterwards to those who help in this way. Lay great stress on this 
last matter. It will pay. 

There will be no doubt of your receiving the necessary assistance through 
the national, state and county committees ; only see that it is husbanded and 
made to produce results. I rely on you to advise your precinct correspondents, 
and urge them to unremitting and constant eiforts from now till the polls 
close and the result is announced officially. We Avill fight for a fair election 
here if necessary. The rebel crew cannot steal this election from us as they 
did in 1884 without some one getting hurt. Let every Republican do his 
whole duty and the country will pass into Republican hands, never to leave 
it, I trust. Thanking you again for your efi"orts to assist me in my work, I 
remain. 

Tours, sincerely, 

Wm. TV. Dudley. 

Please wire me result in principal precincts and county. 

It will be observed here, as everywhere in this whole shameful business, 
that the reliance for success is placed in the corrupt use of money. The 
greasy hand of the boodler and briber has left its mark on every page of the 
history of the campaign of 1888. By way of running comment on these 
matters, I will introduce an extract from the New York World of recent date. 
The World says : 

President Harrison has been in power fifteen months. His administration 
thus far shows that he has rewarded with high ofl&ce nearly every prominent 
man who helped elect him. Wanamaker has been given a cabinet portfolio. 
The leading Republican editors have been decorated with commissions to 
serve their country as foreign ministers, with the solitary exception of Dr., 
Murat Halstead, whose high ambition was thwarted by the Senate. Dudley 
indicted for inciting to bribery in purchasing the floating vote of Indiana, has 
been cared for by saving him from the penitentiary. This was accomplished 
through the instrumentality of Judge Woods, of the district court of Indiana. 

THE EEMINE AROUND THE AECH BRIBEE. 

The history of this outrage on justice is as follows : Immediately after 
the gross election frauds of 1888 in Indiana were discovered a warrant was 
sworn out for Dudley's arrest, by a most reputable citizen, but Dudley absented 
himself for nearly a year from the state, and there was no opportunity for serv- 
ing it. 'He was an exile and a fugitive, and the officers of the United States, 
whose laws he had broken, made not a single efi'ort to arrest him. Indeed, 
there were positive orders from Washington not t© interfere Avith him in any 
way or give him the slightest inconvenience. Had he not saved Indiana and 
elected a Republican president? Judge Woods at one time, in one of his 
charges to the grand jury of Indianapolis, led the country to believe that he 
would do his duty in the matter; but, instructed from Washington, he posi- 
tively directed the grand jury to let the blocks-of-five bribers go quit and free. 



fHJ^ ELEC'ftON BILL, 



201 



Dmlley about this time was threatening to use the " dynamite" he had in his 
possession unless the Harrison beneficiaries of his crime came to his rescue. 
Two more contradictory charges of a United States judge were probably never 
delivered in the case of any one accused of crime. Here they are side by 
side : 



OEIGIXAL IXSTEUCTION TO THE GEAXU 
JUEY. 

The latter clause of the section makes 
any one guilty who counsels bribery. 
* * * This clause makes it an offense 
for any one to advise another to at- 
tempt to commit any of the offenses 
named in this section; so that, while it 
is not a crime to make the attempt, it 
is a crime to advise another to make 
the attempt. If A attempts to bribe B, 
that is no offense under this statute ; 
but if A advises B to bribe C, then the 
one who commends or gives this ad- 
vice is an offenderunder this law. And 
I will say that there is some wisdom in 
this provision. 



EEVISED INSTEUCTIOXS. 

It results, of course, that the mere 
sending by one to another, of a letter 
or document containing advice to bribe 
a voter, or setting forth a scheme for 
such bribery, however bold and repre- 
hensible, is not indictable. There must 
be shown in addition an attempt by 
the receiver of the letter, or of some 
other instigated by him to execute the 
scheme by bribing or attemping to 
bribe some voter in respect to the elec- 
tion of congressmen, or in such way 
as to affect such election. 

Another point deserves considera- 
tion in this connection. If the view 
be adopted that advice not acted upon 
may constitute a crime, then the-exact 
words used in giving the advice, 
whether oral or written, must be as- 
certained, and every possible intend- 
ment in favor of innocence must be 
allowed and all doubts resolved in 
favor of the accused. If the use of 
money be advised, but the particular 
purpose of its use be not clearly and 
indeed conclusively indicated, a pos- 
sible innocent use will be presumed; 
and even if the purpose to bribe be 
unquestionable, and yet it appears 
tbat the design was to purchase votes 
for other officers than representatives 
in Congress, it would be no crime 
under the statute which is designed 
to protect the election for that office. 

DUDLEY GOES QUIT AND FEEE. 

Dudley, after an absence of more than a year, returned to Indianapolis last 
December. Chambers, an appointee of President Harrison, declined to arrest 
him, and openly defended the blocks-of-five letter. 

Mr. Speaker, I desire to call attention m this connection to the fact that it 
is to the federal judiciary, appointed for life, mostly Republican in politics, 



202 THE ELECTION BILL. 

that we are asked by this bill to turn over the absolute control of federal elec- 
tions. I would not have it understood that I regard this judge as representa- 
tive of the federal judiciary, but, sir, I call attention to the terrible dangers 
that we would encounter by dragging the judiciary into polities. When the 
confidence of the people in the integrity of our courts is swept away, our sys- 
tem of goyernment will fail, and our constitution will be as a rope of sand to 
be broken, or a band of steel to crush the liberties of the people. 

Xow, Mr. Speaker, I have shown that the money to buy the election of this 
Congress and this administration was raised by contributions and assessments 
from the allied interests of monopoly. We have the use of the money ack- 
nowledged, with the claim that it carried the election for the Eepublican 
party. We have the fact that the president has recognized those who raised 
the fund in the distribution of his patronage. We have the evidence that the 
most notorious bribei' since the last days of the Roman Republic was granted 
immunity from punishment for his crimes, and it is known that he is to-day 
one of the most powerful factors in the managem'ent of the Pension Office, 
which has the distribution of nearly one-half the revenues of the govern- 
ment. 

The political party which conspired with these monopolies against the peo- 
ple and profited by this corrupt victory came into this House with a bare con- 
stitutional quorum. It elected for speaker a man who invented "general 
parliamentary law," and "saw quorums" where none legally existed. This 
party has recognized but one god, Monopoly, and Speaker Reed as his prophet. 
A code of rules was adopted which is binding on everybody but the speaker; 
a code which stifles debate and shuts out the light of investigation and discus- 
sion, which are so essential to healthful and honest legislation. 

They have made the speaker of this House, the lower branch of Congress, 
one full half of the legislative machinery of the government. 

And we further quote here an extract from the Balti- 
more Sun concerning gerrymandering in New England, 
where and from whence so much loud talk about a '^^free 
ballot and a fair count^^ *^^are borne on the winds," as 
follows : 

Some brief mention has heretofore been made of the remarkably dispropor- 
tionate influence and power in national afi"airs exercised by the Eepublican 
voters of New England. It is an interesting subject, and will Avell repay 
entering upon details. The bulk of the political literature which almost 
ingulfs the Coyigressional Record is contributed by Kew England senators and 
members, the burden of whose lay is the alleged denial of representation to 
voters in other sections than their own. Mr. Speaker Reed, in speeches and 
interviews and magazine articles in the last six months, has clamored without 
cessation for the doctrine that so many black voters in the South, constituting 
a certain percentage of the population, are entitled to a proportionate number 
of representatives in Congress. It is for securing this end that the election 
measures which he so earnestly advocates are to be directed. If he will only 



THE ELECTION BILL. 203 

consent to apply the same principle to liis own section the measures to be 
brought forAvard would, most probably, receive a much stronger support than 
is likely to come to them under existing circumstances. 

It is really astonishing that so little comment has been provoked by the 
condition of political affairs in Xew England. It is marvelous that the de- 
scendants of the Anglo-Saxon race have not risen in revolution at the denial 
of political rights which has prevailed for more than half a century. Xo such 
congressional and legislative gerrymandering has been continued or enforced 
elsewhere in the world as that existing in Xew England for Republican ben- 
efit. At the last conffressional elections in Xovember, 1888, the Eepublicans 
polled an aggregate of 449,090 votes, and the opposition polled 378,477, or 
veiy much more than two-fifths. Yet the Republicans have all of the twelve 
senators from Xew England, and twenty-three out of twenty-six representa- 
tives. 

In Connecticut the Republicans were in a minority of more than three 
thousand, yet they have the two senators and three of the four representatives. 
In Xew Hampshire the Republicans polled 45,274 votes, and the opposition 
45,430, ye^the Republicans hold onto both senators and both representatives. 
In Rhode Island the Republicans have held on to power not only by unfair 
apportionments, but by the most wholesale disfranchisement of citizens. That 
state is bound to slip from them now, and if it is ever possible to receive a 
reasonably fair apportionment, Connecticut and Xew Hampshire would soon 
follow suit. 

The Republican senators and representatives from Xew England, so many 
of whom are occupying seats to which they are not justly entitled, have put 
themselves into positions of commanding influence in both branches of Con- 
gress. In the Senate they are at the head of the most important and influen- 
tial committees, and exercise a control over legislation monstrously unequal. 
Of the two Maine senators Mr. Frye is at the head of the committee on com- 
merce and Mr. Hale is chainnan of the committee on the census. The two 
Xew Hampshire senators respectively head the committees on education and 
labor andimmigi'ation. The senators from the insignificant state of Vermont, 
which hardly contributes enough to the national treasury to pay its own oflSce- 
holders, preside over the committees on finance and judiciary. The Mas- 
sachusetts senators have the chairmanships of the committees on privileges 
and elections and on Indian affairs. Senator Aldrich, of Rhode Island, is 
chairman of the committee on rules. The two Connecticut senators hold the 
committee on territories and on military affairs. Mr. Dixon, of Rhode 
Island, is the only Xew England senator who is not a chairman. This is be- 
cause he only came to the Senate in Xovember last. But it may be taken for 
granted that in a short time he will be found at the head 'of some big com- 
mittee. 

In the House we have Mr. Reed of Maine, whose election is only compassed 
by wholesale and open bribery, assuming despotic power in the speaker's chair, 
and at the same time acting as chairman of the committee on rules. Of his 
colleagues, Mr. Dingley is a member of the committee on ways and means, 
which is equivalent to a chairmanship ; Mr. Boutelle is chairman of the com- 



204 THE ELECTION BILL. 

mittee on naval afiairs, and Mr. Milliken of the committee on public builct-- 
ings and grounds ; Mr. Spooner of Rhode Island, is chairman of the commit- 
tee on accounts ; Mr. Grout of Ycrmont. is chairman of the committee on the 
District of Columbia ; Mr. Banks of Massachusetts, is chairman of the com- 
mittee on expenditures of the interior department ; Mr. Lodge of Massachu- 
setts, chairman of the committee on the election of president and yiee-presi- 
dent, and Mr. Candler of Massachusetts, chairman of the committee on the 
qu adr o -c entennial . 

It need not be supposed that these New England Republicans, who have 
walked into Congress over the slaughtered political rights of nearly one-half 
the population of their section, are satisfied with monopolizing the chairman- 
ships of the principal committees. They will be found stowed away in top 
places of all other desirable committees, so that their influence permeates 
every species of legislation for every section. Effrontery has long been char- 
acteristic of the New England Republican congressman, but it is difficult to 
conceive how they, the beneficiaries of the almost complete practical denial 
of political rights to hundreds of thousands of white voters, can assume to 
discourse so much upon alleged and imaginary similar instances as to black 
voters. 

During the last presidential campaign the Republicans 
promised to pass a bill in aid of common schools, and gained 
many votes thereby, but like all their promises, it was never 
redeemed. The educational bill had a fair prospect of be- 
ing passed until it was discovered by Eepublicans that a 
federal appropriation might lighten the burden of the 
Southern states in educating the illiterate colored people of 
that region. This bill first passed the Senate by a respecta- 
ble majority, but notwithstanding the Republican party 
clothed the colored citizens with citizenship, thereby invest- 
ing them with the right to vote and hold offices of high 
trust and responsibility, and at the same time claim- 
ing the entire support of the colored race for that party, 
still that party shrank from the responsibility of redeeming 
their promise, which would have been a means of educating, 
advancing and civilizing the colored race, and advancing 
them to a higher plain of virtue and morality. This non- 
support of the election bill was either due to Republican 
sectional feeling that the Southern people would be finan- 
cially assisted in the education of the myriads of colored 
people who must necessarily remain inhabitants of the South,. 



THE ELECTION BILL, 207 

or^ they feared that, when the colored voters became edu- 
cated, they could not be controlled so easily in the interest 
of the Eepublican party, or both. We shall not attempt 
here to discuss the merits of the federal educational 
bill, but simply desire to refer to the reasons for 
Eepublican opposition to that bill after having made, 
so many promises concerning it. That their oj)posi- 
tion became more outspoken when they found that a consid- 
erable number of Southern senators and representatives 
declared their support of the same, is very evident from the 
record ; and the reasons that they gave, in the last stages of 
the debate concerning the measure, show conclusively that 
their opposition was principally caused by their sectional 
feeling ; for most of their final arguments seemed to be 
based upon the wonderful prosperity and advancement of 
the South in wealth and industry since the war. Their 
arguments teem with gross exaggerations and misrepre- 
sentations concerning the increase of wealth and prosperity 
in the South during the past twenty years, and in view of 
all this, claim that the entire burden of educating and 
civilizing this newly emancipated race of colored people 
should be borne entirely by the Southern states. That 
Eepublicans refrain from supporting such a measure is 
easily accounted for, it being very evident, to the casual 
observer, that the more intelligent the colored man becomes, 
the more apt he is to vote the Democratic ticket. The 
colored man finds, as he becomes more educated and enlight- 
ened, that he does not owe his emancipation to the feeling 
and sentiment of the Eepublican party at the time of its 
organization, but to a force of circumstances existing after- 
ward, and during the war. He finds that the Eepublican 
party, at the time of its organization, indorsed and up- 
held the existence of slavery in the states Avhere it then ex- 
isted, and declared that it should never be interfered with. 
He finds that when Abraham Lincoln issued the proclama- 
tion which finally liberated his race, there was no pretence 



208 THE ELECTION BILL. 

that it was done on account of the cruelties and injustice of 
slavery ; but was done as a necessary war measure that the 
confederacy might be weakened, and the rebellion sooner 
su|)pressed. He finds that Abraham Lincoln, even gave 
public notice to the confederacy twice in succession, before 
he issued his proclamation, that, if they would lay down 
their arms and return allegiance to the government, they 
should retain all their former rights and privileges ; other- 
wise he would set their slaves free by issuing his procla- 
mation to that effect. He finds that, at the time that Mr. 
Lincoln gave his notices of what he would do, in case the 
confederates did not cease hostilities, that the Republican 
party, as such, showed no inclination to indorse such a 
policy, and that Lincoln was compelled to take upon him- 
self the responsibility of issuing his emancipation procla- 
mation. He finds that, after the issuing of that procla- 
mation, it created great dissatisfaction among a large 
number of men who have, of late, howled themselves hoarse 
in order that they might convince the country of their 
extraordinary loyalty to government, and their untiring 
love for the colored race and pretended anxiety for their 
welfare. Among those opponents of Lincoln^s emancipa- 
tion policy the colored man finds the celebrated ex-senator 
John J. Ingalls of Kansas, the man who, in the United 
States Senate, in 1888, denounced Generals Haincock and 
McClellan as confederate sympathizers. He finds, after 
reading the biography of Mr. Ingalls that he ran for 
lieutenant-governor of Kansas, in 1862, upon the anti- 
Eepublican ticket, a ticket that had at its head Mr. 
Wagstaff of Paola, as staunch a Democrat as ever trod 
the American soil; and that the principal issue of 
that campaign between the two contending parties was 
whether Lincoln^s emancipation policy should be indorsed. 
He finds that this celebrated ex-senator ran again for lieu- 
tenant-governor of Kansas, in 1864, on the anti-Eepublican 
thicket, upon which ticket was placed the names of three 



THE ELECTION BILL. 209 

McClellan presidential electors,, and that said senator con- 
trolled a newspaper during the campaign of 1864^ in the 
interest of the ticket upon which his name appeared; but 
after he became senator, he was cautious enough to make 
way with the files of that paper during the four months 
immediately preceding that election. He finds that, in 
any one of many counties in the Southern states, where 
Republicans would teach him all his greatest enemies 
reside, more colored men have held high offices of trust and 
responsibility, for many years, than have been elevated to 
office in all the Northern Republican states combined, and 
that all this radical howling and screeching concerning his 
rights is simply a play for his support of the Republican 
party. These and a thousand other facts, of which 
he was before unaware, he ascertains when he becomes 
educated. And well may the Republican party fear the 
consequences of his education. Some colored citizens, 
though not very well enlightened, ought to be able to appre- 
ciate the willingness of Republicans to submit to govern- 
ment controlled by colored officials, for it is a sublime fact 
that in the forty-third Congress a Republican House and 
Senate denied to both colored and white voters the right to 
vote in the District of Columbia, and a Republican president 
approved of it, for the sole reason that Republicans had 
come to the conclusion that colored men were unfit to control 
the affairs of the district. Republican senators and repre-. 
^sentatives consider that the polored men in the South 
ought to be trusted to rule the millions there, but do not 
care to see the capitol city governed by them, as it comes a 
little too close to the ends of their noses while tarrying 
there. Rather than submit to such a government they did 
away with self-government in the District of Columbia, 
In the North there are about 500,000 colored people, sur- 
rounded closely with their pretended Republican friends. 
They have there had free access to the schools, colleges and all 
institutions of learning. But you do not find them there 

14 



210 THE ELECTION BILL. 

occupying positions of trust and honor in the legislative, 
executive or judicial departments of the different state gov- 
ernments. They do not there occupy positions in mercan- 
tile, banking or business establishments owned by white 
people, or filling positions of a clerical nature in any of the 
industrial establishments of the North. They are there 
branded by their pretended Kepublican friends as though 
color was a mark of inferiority, unfitting them for any call- 
ing except the performance of menial services, no 
matter how well educated they may be. The colored 
peojole do not immigrate to Kansas or to any other state in 
the North to any great extent, and why not ? There is 
where their pretended friends live ; but they see no hope 
of colored men being sent to Congress from there, nor any 
prospect of being appointed postmaster or elected to any 
office of trust. The Republicans of the North do not find 
the colored man fit to serve his country in a civil capacity 
in any other region than in the South. For many years 
the votes of white people were suppressed in the states of 
Massachusetts and Rhode Island on account of their 
ignorance and poverty, and with such a record they are 
continually imagining, if not absolutely assuming, that the 
colored vote is suppressed in the South. 

Neither do Republicans take into consideration the mate- 
rial interests of the colored people of the South when they 
come to the enactment of their tariif laws, for the provisions 
of the McKinley bill place an enormous burden upon them. , 
The planters in the South, who own most of the cotton, 
rice and sugar plantations, rent out their plantations princi- 
pally to colored people, who work them on shares, they being 
furnished with supplies by the owners of the plantations 
until the end of the year, when the crop is gathered. Under 
those leases the tenants, who are nearly all colored men, are 
compelled to pay for the tie with Avhich to bind the cotton 
bales. Heretofore the tariff tax on cotton ties was only 35 
pej* cent. a(i valorern, which aniounted in 1888 to $296,000, 



THE ELECTION BILL. . 211 

But the McKinley bill increases the tax to 103 per cent, ad 
valorem, and the tax will be 1800,000 on ties required to 
bind the same amount of cotton. Nearly all of this tax 
falls upon the colored man of the South, and illustrates the 
manner by which the Eepublican party expresses its sym- 
pathy for his welfare. Then there is rice, which is j^ro- 
duced exclusively by negro labor in South Carolina and 
Louisiana, the importation of which is increasing every 
year, while the duty on the same has been greatly decreased. 
And it is the same way with sugar, which is produced in the 
South principally by colored labor. The colored laborer is 
left entirely without protection. He has nothing to con- 
tribute to the success of the Eepublican party except his 
vote, which he has freely given heretofore, and may con- 
tinue to cast it in the same direction until he becomes con- 
scious that the Republican party, instead of being his friend, 
is his worst enemy. 

Would it not be far better for the Republican party to 
do something to increase cordiality between the colored 
people and their white neighbors, instead of continually 
making false promises to the colored race, and engendering 
hatred and discord between the two races ? The South is 
the home of the colored man, and pr6bably always will be, 
and he must look to the white people of the South for 
whatever assistance he receives aside from his own race. 
His well-being depends upon his being on friendly terms 
with his landlord and employer, and every effort made on 
the part of Republican fanatics to prevent a cordiality of 
feeling between the colored and white races in the South, or 
every promise made to the colored people by Northern dema- 
gogues, which causes the colored man to cease to rely upon 
his own exertions, is an unmitigated fraud upon both races. 

It has always been supposed, prior to the incoming of 
Harrison^s administration, that the law-making branch of 
this government was a deliberative body, one where the rep^ 
resentatives of the people should have ample opportunity 



212 THE ELECTION BILL. 

for mature, intelligent and deliberate discussion of every 
important measure which might be brought before it for 
action. But the fifty-first Congress, which history will re- 
cord as containing the blackest record, on the part of the 
Eepublicans, ever written in this country, saw fit to revo- 
lutionize and overthrow the rights which every representa- 
tive in the House has been absolutely entitled to for one 
hundred years. The rules of the House were so changed 
that no representative can tell, when he goes to the House, 
what measure will be brought forward for immediate action, 
and without discussion ; so changed that when the commit- 
tee on rules comes in, morning after morning, and so de- 
mands, the House shall immediately take up some great 
public measure and proceed summarily to its disposal. 
They so changed the rules as to tear down the palisades 
that have heretofore had a tendency to protect the public 
treasury against the "hordes of banditti ^^ who, notwith- 
standing, have quite successfully raided and looted it during 
the past twenty-five years. By their changes in the rules 
they fixed things in fine shape for grinding out laws which 
reach deep down into the treasury, and framed in the inter- 
est of their darling pets, without giving the opposition an 
opportunity to consider them properly and place their objec- 
tions on record, and thereby enable the people to become 
acquainted with their infamous modes and measures. So 
changed the rules '^'^that in the privacy of the committee-room 
alone shall bills be digested and adopted, and that when 
they come to the House with the quorum of one hundred, 
and with unlimited discretion and latitude in the speaker, 
not given to the speaker of any other free representative 
assembly in the world, they shall be rushed through and 
the surplus disappear just as the snow before the suns of 
spring." The constitution plainly provides that a quorum 
to do business shall consist of a majority of all members 
elected ; but what do Eepublicans care for constitutional 
provisions when they are found to stand in the way of leg- 



THE ELECTION BILL. 213 

islating themselves into power^, or of their looting the treas- 
ury. Under the new rules^ were they permitted to stand. 
Congress will simply meet to vote, without discussion, money 
out of the treasury under a contemptible caucus system, 
and the field will be thrown wide open for the business of 
the lobbyists. 

"Under the old rules arraigned and indicted" by Keed and his followers, 
' as obstructions to public business," there was less power to obstruct it than 
under the rules of the British House of Commons. The mode of obstruction 
in that body is as follows : " Every member of the British House of Commons 
has the absolute right to be recognized the moment he rises. The speaker of 
that assemblage has no power to ignore the claim for the floor of any individual 
member who rises to obtain it. 

" He is obliged to recognize a member as a constitational right ; and when 
a member of that body once obtains the floor he is privileged to hold it as 
long as he discusses the subject to which he addresses himself. The humblest 
and newest member is not a mere effigy to fill a seat, and ejaculate at intervals 
* aye ' and ' no,' like a patent doll." 

And yet Republicans call such action reform^ They 
know that it is retrogression, and in the interest of fraud 
and corruption. It is the establishment of the private 
caucus system whereby bills of the greatest importance are 
to be settled upon in the committee room, and are not to 
be digested, considered, and deliberated upon m the 
light of day by a committee of the whole. 

One of the pretended reasons for the adoption of the 
new rules was that the Democrats desired to delay the 
business of legislation. Such talk as this comes with very 
poor grace from Republicans. Iso set of men on top of 
earth have ever been so guilty of base conduct in delaying 
just legislation, and so frequent in their attempts at corrupt 
legislation as Republican representatives in Congress. They 
had their time to denounce Cleveland and the Mills bill, 
and all just measures proposed by Democrats, and no efforts 
were made to deprive them of a free consideration and 
discussion of all questions. Their pretended excuse is a 
fraud. They desired to admit states which were not 
entitled to admission^ and refused to admit those better 



214 THE ELECTION BILL, 

entitled, entirely on partisan grounds. They desired to 
pass an infamous tariff bill containing provisions different 
from what the people expected. They wanted to pass an 
election bill which would deprive the people of their sacred 
rights at the ballot box, and perpetuate the power and 
control of the Republican party. They had a desire to 
subsidize their pet ship-builders and do many other infam- 
ous things, and their object was, in adopting the new rules, 
to suppress discussion as much as possible, in order that 
they might accomplish their criminal work before that just 
indignation which they apprehended would break forth 
from the people and overtake them. 

What, then, has been accomplished during the first session 
of the fifty-first Congress under Harrison^s administration ? 
Certainly nothing which has a tendency to benefit the people. 
Republicans seem to have become devoid of all principle, if 
they ever had any. It is certainly not principle to burden 
an already overtaxed people with greater taxation. De- 
creasing our circulating medium, while population and 
business are rapidly increasing, is not principle. Placing 
the control of elections into the hands of the Republican 
party for all time to come is not principle. The manage- 
ment and distribution of offices by such men as Quay, 
Clarkson and Dudley is not clothed with the attributes of 
principle. The endless appropriation of the public funds, 
in hopes of meeting foul and corrupt promises made before 
the last presidential election, does not look like principle. 
Something might have been done in the interest of civil 
service reform by Harrison and his administration, but as 
yet the virtue of that system does not seem to have as 
many charms for him as it did prior to his election in 1888. 
Bitter were the denunciations and loud were the groans 
from Republican leaders as Cleveland slowly turned the old 
pap-suckers out, but they were highly pleased to see Harrison 
remove from office, during the first year of his administration, 
for purely political reasons, more persons from office than 



THE ELECTION BILL. 2l5 

had ever been removed before in the same length of time since 
the government was founded. Republicans talk some of a 
navy, and concerning what they call the Pan-American 
Congress. But it is principally thunder stolen from the 
Democrats. It is well known that the efforts made toward 
the construction of a suitable navy for twenty years prior to 
Cleveland's election were futile; and the only efforts whereby 
anything was accomplished in that direction, were made dar- 
ing Cleveland's administration. So far as the Pan-American 
Congress is concerned, every intelligent American knows, or 
ought to know, that the law providing for the meeting of that 
congress was passed and approved by a Democratic adminis- 
tr.ition. Some Republicans, ignorant of the history and the 
doings of their own party, venture to assert that Harrison's 
administration has restored security to the fishermen in 
Canadian waters by asserting treaty rights; but they should 
know that, prior to the election of Cleveland, the treaty of 
Washington, which defined our rights in the fisheries, was 
terminated by a Republican administration. President 
Cleveland requested that additional power be conferred 
upon him, that he might be able to enforce our just 
demands, which was refused by a Republican Senate for 
partisan reasons. In this the Republicans showed the false 
colors of their boasted Americanism. During Cleveland's 
administration a treaty was proposed which would have for- 
ever settled and secured our fishing rights, but it was 
defeated by Republicans for partisan reasons only, who again 
showed their false colors of boasted Americanism. Repub- 
licans again showed their false colors in relation to the 
Behring sea controversy. British vessels were seized, and 
a proclamation was issued by President Harrison, declaring 
our rights to the control of that sea. But the vessels seized 
were afterward released, and all efforts to secure our rights 
were abandoned. The boasted Americanism of Harrison's 
administration and the Republican party is again illustrated 
by the curious partnership which it has forced this country 



^16 THE ELECTton mLL. 

into with Great Britain and Germany in relation to tlie 
island of Samoa. They have entered into an alliance with 
those countries to maintain a monarchical government over 
those islands, which binds the taxpayers of this republic 
to pay an equal share for its maintenance. Where they 
obtained the power or authority to assist or take part in 
the establishment and maintenance of such a government, 
is very difficult to ascertain. ^^ Besides this alliance being 
absolutely un-American, we have lost thereby the right, 
which was secured by treaty with Samoa, exempting the 
cargoes of American vessels from the payment of import 
and export duties." 



CHAPTER IV. 

REPUBLICAN MISMAKAGEMEN^T OF THE FIKAKCIAL AFFAIRS 
OF THE GOVERITMEJ^T. 

"P EPUBLICAKS boast much concerning their management 
J-t of the financial affairs of the government since 1866, 
but a close examination of their doings in this respect must 
convince the most credulous that the Republican party has, 
since 1866, acted wholly in the interest of monopoly and 
the monetary power. We shall examine their conduct in 
that behalf, confining ourselves to facts and figures, and 
draw such conclusions only as must necessarily follow 
therefrom. 

For years they have had at their back what is known as 
the moneyed power of the country, and- millions of money 
has been spent by them at every general election to elect 
senators and representatives, who took their seats, not for 
the purpose of protecting the interests of the people, but to 
serve their lords and masters. 

In obedience to the dictates of monopoly, the Republican 
party has always been in favor of contracting the circulating 
medium of the country into so narrow a limit, that the 
country has been almost continually on the verge of financial 
panic. Among the means made use of to accomplish their 
nefarious ends was to destroy, and prevent if possible, the 
coinage of silver ; and, in addition thereto, they would 
withdraw from circulation the 1346,000,000 of government 
notes now outstanding. 

In 1873 they demonetized silver, and what rendered their 
conduct more dastardly was the fact that the country was then 

317 



218 REPUBLICAN MISMANAGEMENT. 

being afflicted with one of the most cruel panics which this 
or any other country has ever witnessed, and which was 
brought on by their miserable policy of contraction. At 
the time they committed this fraud, and for years prior 
thereto, gold and silver coin was and had been so scarce in 
most parts of the country, that either was a real curiosity. 
The government at that time, and for years before, had 
been sorely in need of coin, and had suffered greatly for 
the want of it. But in the midst of the great panic, and the 
great need of more circulating medium, the Republican party 
deliberately demonetized silver, thus cutting off the best 
source the government had, or ever will have, for procuring 
the necessary amount of coin. 

It is said that it was a mistake, and that they had no 
intention of demonetizing silver. Does anybody believe 
that the framers of the bill did not know that it demone- 
tized silver ? Those who were acting directly in behalf of 
the power which dictated their action knew it, and they 
accomplished by stealth what they dare not attempt to do 
openly and honestly. For, although they pretend that it 
was an accident, what did they do between 1872 and 1878 ? 
Did they assist in restoring the coinage of silver, or even 
help to restore a limited coinage ? History tells us that 
five long years passed before a limited coinage could be 
secured, during all of which time the Republican agents of 
the money power resisted the correction of the mistake, or 
oversight, as they called it ; and even then, it was necessary 
to pass the Bland bill over the veto of a Republican presi- 
dent. For the remonetization of silver we have to thank 
the Democratic party, whose votes became so numerous in 
Congress in 1878 that their power could not be very well 
resisted upon that question. 

It is a notorious fact that every Republican president 
and secretary of the treasury since 1866 have advocated 
the withdrawal of the $346,000,000 of government notes 
from circulation and, since 1878, a discontinuance of the 



REPUBLICAN MISMANAGEMENT. 219 

coinage of silver. This policy was dictated to the leaders 
of that party by the moneyed powei>, and they have never 
failed to obey those dictations. 

As early as 1866, that party began its wholesale robbery 
of the masses by commencing to fund the currency, which 
had been issued for the prosecution of the war, into interest- 
bearing bonds. This currency had been purchased by the 
sharks of Wall street at an average of fifty cents on the 
dollar. It was carried to the government treasury, and 
there exchanged, dollar for dollar, for an interest-bearing 
bond. Those bonds were made payable, by the terms of 
the act authorizing their issue, in the currency of the 
country, whatever that might be. Afterward the holders 
of the bonds clamored for a greater advantage, and the 
Eepublican party came to their relief, and made the prin- 
cipal of their bond payable in coin. Again they clamored 
for more favors, and insisted that the principal and interest 
of their bonds should be paid in gold coin only, and John 
Sherman, then secretary of the treasury, without any legal 
authority whatever therefor, favored them with payments, 
both principal and interest, in gold. 

At the time of the inauguration of this policy of discrim- 
ination, the secretary knew that the currency for which 
those bonds had been exchanged, had been willfully and 
purposely depreciated, so that it could be purchased at one- 
half its face value, by the very men who received the bonds 
in exchange therefor, and that they were not entitled to 
exact from the government any more than what they paid 
for the currency. He also knew that the soldiers, who had 
accepted this, the only currency which the country could 
give, for their pay, lost just what the rapacious broker made 
through favors shown him by the government aijd its offi- 
cials. Still John Sherman, as secretary of the treasury, re- 
fused to pay out silver in payment of the interest or princi- 
pal of the public debt, notwithstanding the law required 
him to pay out that kind of coin which the government was 



220 BEP VBLICAN MISMAl^A Gt^MENT. 

the best able to dispose of, and this, too, when he was bit- 
terly complaining that the treasury vaults were overloaded 
with silver, and that he could not get the same into circu- 
lation. To be sure he had an excuse for his conduct, which 
was, that the bondholders wanted nothing but gold, and 
he considered their desires above a law of Congress, and, 
had the same been obeyed by him, he would have paid out 
the silver on the interest and principal of the public debt, 
and thereby the surplus silver, which he complained of, 
would have readily found its way out of the treasury vaults 
into circulation among the people. 

For years every Eepublican leader and newspaper organ, 
and especially the heads of the different departments of 
the government, have labored incessantly to convince the 
American people that the federal bonds are gold obliga- 
tions, when, in fact, there is no such thing as a government 
bond payable, under the law, exclusively in gold coin. 
They know that every such obligation is expressly payable 
in coin of the standard value of the United States, consist- 
ing of gold and silver. Silver is a legal tender for all 
debts, both public and private, and without this quality 
neither gold nor silver coin would constitute money in any 
sense of the term. Then why should high government 
officials be so persistent in making false representations to 
the people, and be applauded for violating plain statute 
law in order to bestow favors upon a moneyed class. 

The law and the contract, in pursuance of which the 
bonds were issued, is perfectly plain, and is indorsed upon 
the bonds in plain and unmistakable language ; still the 
leaders of the Republican party have always talked about 
the gold obligations of the government, as if their very 
lives and the existence of the country depended upon 
paying the principal and interest of the bonds in gold coin. 

Why is it that, in the estimation of the Republican party, 
the masses should not be treated the same as bondholders, 
so far as legal tender money is concerned ? Why is it that, 



ilEP UBLICAN MiSMANA GEMENf. i1\ 

in their estimation, gold only means coin, when bankers, 
brokers and bondholders are to be paid ? What does the 
government owe this rapacious class that the treasury 
should be used almost exclusively for their benefit, and the 
financial legislation of the country be in their interest 
only ? Did they ever do or accomplish any great things for 
the nation, either in times of war or peace ? There was a 
time when the government needed heljD in the shape of 
money and sympathy. What did this favored class do for 
the country in the time of its greatest need ? They refused 
to loan the nation a dollar, cried down and depreciated the 
currency in the darkest hour of the trials of the govern- 
ment, robbed the soldier and the poor man, and the Repub- 
lican party rewarded them for their cowardly nefariousness 
by giving them a premium of 100 per cent, in interest- 
bearing bonds. It may be truly said that, while the South 
was the immediate cause of one-half the war debt. Wall 
street, aided and abetted by the Republican party, was the 
cause of the other half. 

The excuse given for their past course in this direction 
was their pretended desire to strengthen the public credit. 
So far as public credit is concerned, that of the govern- 
ment has always been sufi&ciently high, and needed no 
strengthening in such a manner. Nobody, after the close 
of the war, doubted the willingness or ability of the govern- 
ment to pay its obligations according to contract, and no 
attempt has ever been made to injure its credit except by 
the moneyed power. Its credit ought to be good after with- 
standing the bleeding process which the Republican party 
has permitted on the part of brokers and blood-suckers. 
So anxious were they to strengthen the public credit, as 
they pretended, that they funded the public debt so far 
beyond call that no part of it could be paid for long periods 
of time, except by paying a premium of from 24 to 30 per 
cent, for the privilege, and even more if the bondholders 
demanded it. This was the pet idea of John Sherman and 



222 BjEPUBLICAN MISMANAGEMENT. 

most other Republicans^ to further the interests of monopoly 
by enabling the bondholders to exact an enormous premium 
for the privilege^ on the part of the people, of paying the 
national debt. This they call strengthening the public 
credit. They would have the people believe that the 
premium exacted upon the 4 and 4^ |)er cent, bonds is 
owing to the extraordinary credit of the government, as if 
so small an interest would justify such a premium, every- 
thing else being equal. The ordinary observer cannot be long 
in detecting this fraud, notwithstanding the efforts of govern- 
ment officials, for years, to convince them that such is the case. 
The fact of there being a high premium, or any premium 
at all upon bonds, is entirely owing to their value as the basis 
of national banks, and the necessity on the part of the gov- 
ernment to purchase bonds that cannot be called at the 
option of the government in order to prevent financial pan- 
ics. This ought to become well understood by the masses. 
It also ought to be now well understood that the bonds were 
funded beyond call of the government to prevent their pay- 
ment at the pro|)er time, and thus further the interests of 
the national banks, who desire that the bonds shall never 
be paid. President Arthur struck the key-note when he 
said, in his message to Congress in 1883, that the public 
debt was being too rapidly paid, for the reason that a large 
proportion of the bonds would be hereafter needed upon 
which to base future national banks, and that the coinage 
of silver should be suspended and the government notes 
withdrawn from circulation. Mr. Arthur knew, as well as 
any man living, what the desire of the moneyed power was, 
and he was never at all reticent about advocating and rec- 
ommending the carrying out of their policy. He knew that 
the national banks upon their present basis necessitate a 
perpetual existence of the bonds, so that the people must 
always be paying interest for their benefit. He, and every 
other Republican official at that time, understood very well 
that the national banks desired the destruction of every kind 



REP UBLICAN MISMANA GEBIENT. 223 

of money except gold and national bank notes, that they 
might monopolize and coiitrol the finances of the country. 
And why not ? They draw a fair compensation from the 
government in the shape of interest on their bonds, while 
the government makes them a present of nearly as much more 
in the shape of national bank notes. But it treats no other 
class of men in the same manner except the factory bosses. 
The government doubles the capital of the national bankers 
by favoring them with its credit, but it is possible that, 
should the Eepublicans again obtain control of both Houses 
of Congress, the government will issue to the banks an 
amount of notes greater than the face of the bonds deposited 
by them, for, on January 6th, 1888, John Sherman wrote 
the following letter to one John Thompson : 

Senate Chamber, Washington, D. C, January 6tli. 
My Dear Sir — Your letter of the 5th is received. I agree with you en- 
tirely as to the propriety of increasing the currency of the national banks in 
the mode suggested, and you are mistaken in supposing that I had been 
opposed to such issue. I introduced a hill three or four years ago allowing an 
issue of bank notes approaching within ten per cent, of the market value of the 
bonds deposited. This was defeated in the committee on finance, and a propo- 
sition to give them circulation to the face of the bonds was reported and passed 
the Senate, but was never acted on in the House. I would most heartily vote 
for a bill authorizing the issue of bank notes equal to the par value of the 

bonds deposited. « 

Yery truly yours, 

John Sherman. 

Of course, Mr. Sherman would most heartily support and 

vote for any measure which would add to the wealth and 

prosperity of the national banks. Who ever thought that 

he would do otherwise, not so much, as John Thompson 

said in his letter to him, " as a favor to the banks, but as 

an advantage to the public at large in securing the banks 

the advantage indicated. *' Mr. Sherman here acknowledges 

that he introduced a bill authorizing an issue of an amount 

of currency to the national banks within 10 per cent, of the 

value of the bonds deposited. This would be from 10 to 

14 per cent, more than the face value of the bonds. How 

sweet indeed and how pious ? 



224 BEF UBLIGAN MISMANA GEMENT. 

This man Sherman, when secretary of the treasury, is 
the identical individual who claimed that it was impossible 
to find room for the storage of the silver being coined by 
the mints, and made this a serious objection to its further 
coinage. He was one among the first to denounce the silver 
dollar as dishonest, and proposed to create the wagon-wheel 
dollar of 480 grains, while he knew at the same time that it 
would purchase the gold dollar, and that between 1881 and 
1885, under his own authorization, $80,000,000 of gold coin 
was voluntarily exchanged for silver and silver certificates at 
the different sub-treasuries by business men who preferred 
the latter to gold. Besides, John Sherman is aware that, for 
many years prior to 1878, the bullion in the silver dollar 
was worth more than that contained in the gold dollar. 
Between 1834 and 1873 the bullion in the silver dollar was 
worth from .34 to 5.22 per cent, more than the gold dollar. 
In 1852 the secretary of the treasury recommended that 
the silver dollar be reduced to 384 grains because it was 
worth more than the gold dollar as bullion ; and an act was 
then passed reducing the amount of metal in the fractional 
coin, and the director of the mint, in his report September 
28, 1871, said : ^'^ A third point in which our monetary laws 
evidently require amendment is a reduction in weight of 
our silver coins. ^^ 

In 1852 the silver dollar, as bullion, was worth 4.26 per 
cent, more than the gold dollar, and in 1873, when silver 
was demonetized, the silver dollar, as bullion, was worth 
2.67 per cent, more than the gold dollar, and still the 
silver dollar was denounced as dishonest by the patriotic sages 
of the Republican party. It matters not that the silver 
bullion contained in the dollar may lack some of being 
equal in value to its worth as money. All metal, when it 
is coined into money, should be worth less as bullion, than 
as money, for, were it otherwise, the coin would be liable 
to be melted up for mechanical purposes, and no depend- 



BEP UBLICAN MISMANA GEMENT. 225 

ence could be placed upon the amount of coin that would 
remain in circulation. 

The doctrine of the Eepublican party is to contract the 
circulating medium into panic-breeding limits, which 
means such a condition as will enable capital to absorb all 
the profits of the laboring and producing classes : 

1. By compelling the laboring and producing classes to 
pay a high protective tariJff on the necessaries of life, for 
the benefit of one class of capitalists, and hoarding a large 
surplus in the treasury and elsewhere, which prevents so 
much from circulating among the people. 

2. By stopping the coinage of silver, which would, under 
the Bland act, cut off a supply of circulating medium from 
twenty-four to forty-eight millions per annum. 

3. By withdrawing the 1346,000,000 of government 
notes from circulation. 

After all this is accomplished, the financial management 
of the government is to be turned over to the national 
banks, with full and unlimited power to do as they please, 
the federal bonds to be kept outstanding for all time to 
come, as their basis, and for their benefit. 

For years the Republican party has rnade the most friv- 
olous excuses for the contraction of the currency, without 
any regard to the direful consequences which never fail to 
follow. The cause of the panic of 1873 can be unerringly 
traced to a contraction of the volume of money circulation, 
coupled with a high protective tariff. Between 1866 and 
1871 there were over $1,300,000,000 of currency withdrawn 
from circulation, from the effects of which the country has 
never yet recovered. 

Every individual who is familiar with the times in 
1865-6 is aware that, at that time, the country was in a 
prosperous condition. Such a state of prosperity had never 
before been witnessed by the people of the nation. Every 
industry was cheered, stimulated and encouraged. The 
farmer, the mechanic and laboring men and women were 



226 MEPUBLICAN MISMANAGEMENT. 

able, through their personal exertions, to accumulate some- 
thing more than a livelihood, and to live with some com- 
fort. The great rural class, who constitute the bone and 
sinew of the land, were able to pay their old mortgages, 
beautify their homes, and accumulate about them many 
things which contributed to the comfort of themselves and 
their families. ' It was then possible for every man, who 
possessed a reasonable amount of ambition, energy and 
application, to soon procure a start in the world, and every- 
thing looked bright in the future. 

But afterward everything became changed. Business be- 
came dull. Stagnation and ruin stared every poor man and 
producer in the face. Farm lands fell one-half in value. 
Mechanics and laborers were thrown out of employment, 
and all the people engaged in ordinary enterprises began to 
grow poorer day by day, until finally bankruptcy overtook 
most of them, and the country was filled with tramps from 
Main to California. That such a state of things was caused 
by a most reckless and unjustifiable contraction of the cur- 
rency, and a high tariff tax, brought about by pernicious 
legislation, cannot be successfully denied. 

In 1865-6 there were in circulation in the United States 
nearly $2,000,000,000 in currency of different kinds. We 
are aware that Eepublican leaders and officials have denied 
this, but it is, nevertheless, true. This currency was issued 
for the purpose of paying the soldier, and for supplies fur- 
nished to maintain the army and navy during the war. This 
volume of currency consisted of notes, commonly called 
greenbacks, national bank notes, compound notes, demand 
notes, one and two year notes and coupon notes of 1863, 
three year notes of 1863-4, fractional currency, coin certifi- 
cates and three per cent, certificates, all a legal tender for 
private debts except the national bank notes. 

As a majority of the Republican leaders have so many 
times misrepresented the amount of currency outstanding 
in 1865-6, in their efforts to convince the people that the 




WM. F. VILAS. 



BEP UBLICAN MISMANA GEMENT, 229 

less money medium they have the better they are off^ and 
that the panic of 1873 was not caused by contraction, refer- 
ence is made to official records upon the subject, and to 
what the Hon. John A. Logan said in the Senate February 
17th, 1874, in opposition to further contraction. He said : 

When tlie war ceased and the wall of separation was withdrawn, and the 
wants of the nation increased in number nearly one-third, and an area nearly 
one-half, doubled in activity and operations, all to be supplied with a medium 
of exchange, just then we commence a reduction in the volume of our cur- 
rency, and when we take into consideration the amount of circulation in 
1865-6, and the amount in circulation now, it is no wonder the people look upon 
this attempt of a still further contraction as something alarming, and in 
order to show the condition the country must be reduced to if the currency be 
not increased, I will give the following tables showing the amount of crn'rency 
in circulation in 1865-6: 

1865. 

Kational Bank Notes $171,321,903 

Legal Tender and Other Notes 698,818,800 

State Bank Notes 58,000,000 

Seven Thirties, 1864 and 1865 830,000,000 

$1,758,140,703 

1866. 

National Bank Notes $230,000,000 

State Bank Notes 9, 784. 025 

Legal Tender and Other Notes 608,870.925 

Seven Thirties 830,000,000 

Total $1,678,654,950 

Here we have the authority of Mr. Logan, so far as he 
mentioned the amount of currency then outstanding. 
He was one among a thousand Kepublicans who was honest 
enough to tell the truth. Had he included in his tables all 
the fractional currency, coin and coin certificates, they 
would have shown more than 11,900,000,000 in circulation 
during the years referred to. 

President Grant said, in his inaugural in 1873 : 

During the last four years the cuiTency has been greatly contracted by the 
withdrawal of the 3 per cent, certificates, coupon interest notes, and 7-30 notes 
outstanding March 4th, 1866. 

It is certain that betAveen 1865 and 1872 the currency 
had been contracted to the extent of about $1,300,000,000, 



230 BEP UBLIGAN MISMANA GEMENT. 

and the demonetization of silver was intended to prevent an 
increase in the volume of money. 

In 1869 an act was passed funding the currency into 
bonds payable in coin. That was when the panic really 
commenced. The currency was withdrawn not to be 
returned. From that time things commenced moving 
slowly. From that hour the prosperity of the producing and 
laboring classes began rapidly to decline and die. Between 
1869 and 1873 the masses struggled to retain what they had 
as they had never struggled before. Most of them were 
ignorant of the cause of their difficulties. They had been 
promised something better in the way of business pros- 
perity^, but, having unbounded confidence in Sherman, 
Blaine and a long list of Republican leaders, who were 
really the agents of the moneyed power, found that they 
had been ruined by those whom they supposed to be their 
best friends. . The crash came in a^ll its glory in 1873, and 
the agents of the moneyed power struck one more deadly 
blow, by stealthily destroying silver, that the evil effects of 
the panic might be intensified. The disaster at first seemed 
to creep upon them by degrees. While farms depreciated 
oO per cent, in value, produce would not bring sufficient to 
pay the cost of production. All ordinary enterprises, which 
before had yielded a profit, were nearly all swept away, 

At the time silver was demonetized, some were turning 
their attention toward that metal as a relief. They saw 
that the mountains of the Great West were yielding 
large amounts of silver bullion annually, and began to 
wonder why the mints of the government had not been put 
into active operation coining this metal into money. To 
some extent the coinage of silver began to be agitated. But 
the bondholders, bankers and brokers did not desire to see 
this done. Hundreds of millions of currency had been 
withdrawn, and they would allow no substitution for it to 
be created by the government, and their orders were strictly 
obeyed by their agents in Congress. They determined to 



BEP UBLICAN MISMANA GEMENT. 231 

demonetize silver at all hazards, which they accomplished 
by fraud. 

The Kepublican party has always intended to prevent 
the coinage of silver, and withdraw the government notes 
from circulation. They intended to retire those notes at 
the time they reached what they afterwards chose to term 
resumption. Kesumption is not what they meant. They 
meant redemption, and that is the term used in the statute 
providing for what the people generally understood to be 
resumption. That they meant to force a redemption, which 
would retire the government notes, there is ample proof. 

The provision was made in what is known as the public 
strengthening act, which reads as follows : 

The United States solemnly pledges its faith to make provision at the earli- 
est practicable period for the redemption of the United States notes in coin. 

And B. H. Bristow, Secretary of the Treasury, said in 
his report in 1875 : 

The circumstances attending the issue of the United States bonds now in 
circulation impose upon the government a peculiar obligation to provide for 
their speedy redemption in coin. 

The government is bound, not only by economic considerations and proper 
regard for the interests of the people, but by expressed and repeated promises 
for the redemption in coin of all its issues of legal tender notes. The Legal 
Tender Act was regarded and treated at the time of its adoption as a temporaiy 
measure. 

The first day of January, 1879, being already fixed by law as the time when 
the redemption of United States notes then outstanding shall begin, it would 
be proper and safe to provide that such notes shall not be legal tender for con- 
tracts made or liabilities contracted after the first day of January, 1877. 

Authority to the secretary of the treasury to redeem and cancel (2,000,000) 
two millions of legal tender notes per month by this process would greatly 
facilitate redemption at the time fixed by law. 

The amount of gall here displayed is more apparent 
when we consider that the nation was at the time passing 
through one of the greatest panics that any people had 
ever witnessed, on account of an enormous contraction of . 
the currency. What the secretary could have meant by 
saying that such a course was justified ^'^not only by 
economic considerations and proper regard for the inter- 



232 BEP UBLICAN MISMANA GEMENT. 

ests of the people/^ is more than mortal man can compre- 
hend, except he considers it necessary to extract from the 
veins of the people every drop of blood, and pluck every 
pound of flesh from their bones. 

The secretary knew that the object of the power behind 
the throne was to redeem and retire the government notes, 
and therefore, in his zeal to serve his masters, he suggested 
the idea of taking away the legal tender quality of the 
notes, and the enactment of a law making it the duty of 
the secretary to cancel a certain amount of the notes per 
month, in order that the notes might be forced from circu- 
lation. He was aware that the people preferred the notes 
to coin, and that redemption, which was so much desired 
by the monetary power, would not take place without tak- 
ing away the money quality of the notes, and peremptorily 
ordering their destruction, notwithstanding provision had 
been made for their redemption in gold. 

This report of the secretary was followed by a recom- 
mendation to Congress in as strong language as that used 
by the secretary. 

President Hayes, in his message to Congress, December 
1st, 1879, said : 

I would, however, strongly urge upon Congress the importance of author- 
izing the secretary to suspend the coinage of silver. 

And concerning the retirement of the United States 
notes, he said: 

The retirement from circulation of United States notes, with the capacity 
of legal tender in private contracts is a step to be taken in our progress 
toward a safe and staple currency, and the interest and security of the people. 

His secretary of the treasury recommended the same 
thing . about the same time, and it is a solemn fact that 
every secretary of the treasury and Republican president, 
prior to 1884, advocated the same doctrine, and were 
backed and supported by the leaders of the Republican 
party. This policy has been insisted upon by them, not- 
withstanding the governjiient notes are as g-ood as ^old, 



BEP UBLICAN MISMANA GEMENT. 233 

and much preferred on account of the convenience of 
handling them. 

From what we have ah-eady stated, it is certain that the 
policy of the Eepiiblican ]Darty has been since 1866 to 
contract the circulating medium into the smallest possible 
limits^ regardless of the consequences. If they ever intended 
to pursue any other policy, they would have learned a 
lesson from the consequences which followed the contraction 
of the currency between 1866 and 1872. 

The prosperity of the country at the present time is 
anything but satisfactory. On every hand we hear com- 
plaints of hard times, and but little else has existed since 
1873. Though we had a Democratic president for four 
years the country is still suffering from the effects of 
financial legislation which was enacted and enforced by 
Eepublican rule. One hundred millions of the people^s 
money was piled up in the treasury during Cleveland's 
administration, produced by high tariff laws passed 
by Eepublican legislators, and the only business that 
the Eepublicans in Congress were engaged in between 
1885 and 1889, was to prevent any proper action being 
taken which would reduce an excessively high tariff tax, 
and thereby prevent the accumulation of an unnecessary 
surplus in the treasury, while the principal business of the 
farmers, for years past, has consisted of borrowing money 
from eastern capitalists, whose agents have been doing a 
flourishing business in every town in the West. The 
necessity for the borrowing of so much money is owing to 
the want of a sufficient circulating medium, and a high 
tariff tax, which takes away the profits of the people. The 
agents of the moneyed power always tell us money is 
plenty, as there are millions of it piled up in Eastern vaults, 
which can be borrowed on mortgage securities. But it is 
not to be forgotten that, when the country has reached 
such a condition that money can be procured only by bor- 
rowing from Eastern capitalists, while it cannot be invested 



234 BEP TIBLiCAN MISMANA GEMENT. 

where it will enable the borrower to realize a sufficient 
profit to pay the interest thereon, there must be something 
rotten at the foundation of our financial system. It may 
be true that money is often piled up in the money centers 
of the East ready to be loaned, and equally as true that the 
producing classes are compelled to mortgage their all to 
borrow ; but when such is the case, it is the best evidence 
that the country is depressed for the want of a sufficient 
supply to keep pace with the increase of population and the 
demands of business. Much was said between 1873 and 1879 
about there being plenty of money in the great money centers 
which could be borrowed, and with truth, too, but, at the same 
time, in the great interior, where the producing classes are to 
be found, there was a money famine, and they are now at 
the verge of the same condition of things. People must 
have a circulating medium to do business with. If they do 
not, their industries must die, and they become penniless, 
and lose what they have by mortgaging lands and other 
property. ''^The scarcity of money means lack of pro- 
duction, low prices, dull times, suspension of business, low 
wages or none at all, non-payment of debts, poverty, want 
and general wretchedness.'^ A financial policy which 
results in piling up all the money in the treasury, or in the 
great money centers to be loaned, is positive evidence that 
the people engaged in producing enterprises have lost their 
investments by not receiving a proper share of it for their 
products, and that it Avill not pay to engage in any business 
but loaning money. When the financial department of the 
government is properly regulated, and the producer not 
over-taxed, those engaged in such enterprises will retain a 
certain amount as profit each year, enabling them to carry 
on their enterprises without borrowing, thus compelling those 
who have too much money to invest it in business enter- 
prises, and the loaning business become a thing of the 
past ; especially on the scale it is now being carried on. 
The business of the great New York money center is trans- 



REP UBLICAN MISMANA GEMENT. 235 

acted through its clearing house, and each year over 
$50,000,000^000 of exchange pass through that institution, 
or considerably more than 1100,000,000 per day ; and yet, 
the actual daily balance paid in currency is not more than 
3 per cent, of this amount. Do away with the clearing 
house, and it would be impossible for them to transact 
their business without a far greater amount of money in 
circulation. But the people in the great interior have no 
clearing houses to supply the place of money. Whatever 
business they transact the actual money must be paid over. 
Even with their clearing house facilities, the bankers and 
brokers of Wall street were so hard pressed in 1873, that 
they plead piteously for more currency, and in response to 
their appeal, the government let loose for their special 
benefit, $25,000,000. Had the people at large demanded 
that an extra supply should be made for their benefit, the 
bankers and brokers would have stepped forward and said, 
'^No!^' and their agents in Congress would have refused 
the demand of the people. 

Senator John A. Logan, one honest Republican, by 
nature, if not by practice, as we have already stated, said 
in the Senate, March 17, 1874 : 

Is it not strange that every argument used here as to the excess of our cur- 
rency is made from a Kew York standpoint and from a clearing-house stand- 
point, although clearing houses only exist in large cities, and actual money is 
required in every small town and rural district 1 It shows that when men get 
to the Senate, they forget the laboring men, the muscle, the bone, the sinew 
that makes the wealth of the country, in advocacy of the interests of the 
moneyed men. Some gentlemen seem to imagine themselves the representa- 
tives here of clearing houses or banking institutions alone. If I were to tell 
them that bank checks could not be passed through the clearing house in the 
little city of Carbondale where I used to live, they would open their eyes in 
amazement at learning that I represented anybody except the clearing house 
interest of Chicago. They should remember that business is not done in this 
country as it is in London. It is not done all over the country as it is in New 
York. The people require a medium of exchange, money with which to 
transact their business. 

And yet certain gentlemen seem to think money and wealth is all that has 
a right to be legislated for in this chamber. Is its influence greater than 
brains, than muscle, than honesty, than industry, than justice — aye, sir, than 



^36 REPUBLICAN MISMANAGEMENT. 

all things else? If this is to be our future policy, may God help the 
republic ! 

I have, sir, on this floor been contending for the masses against the cen- 
tralization of the monetary power of the country in the hands of the few. 
With them I have used what power and influence I have to break the strength 
of the moneyed monopoly which mistaken legislation has already made, and 
which the contraction policy would further strengthen. 

Grave charges are here openly made in the Senate against 
Eepublican senators by one of their own members, for 
assisting the concentration and encroachments of monopo- 
lies by corrupt and mistaken legislation, a policy which 
they had always pursued, and which they have followed 
up ever since with renewed zeal and activity. Mr. Logan 
seemed to think that senators forgot the laboring men and 
the bone and sinew of the country, but in this he was mis- 
taken, for nearly all of them were chosen by the moneyed 
power, and did just what they were sent there to do. For 
this plain and honest talk Mr. Logan came near forfeiting 
his right, with Eepublicans, to a seat in the Senate. 

Who can be so stupid as not to comprehend the fact 
that plenty of money makes good times among the produc- 
ing classes, and a scarcity of money creates hard times. 
As the volume of money is contracted it raises in value, 
products become cheap, small enterprises dwindle and 
decay, and labor goes begging. Plenty of money cheapens 
it, enterprises thrive, products sell at paying rates, and 
labor finds profitable employment. 

Contractionists, among whom were John Sherman, Carl 
Schurz and a host of others, told the people in 1872 and in 
1873 that the less currency we have in circulation the more 
it will purchase, and the better off they would be, and 
thousands of people could not comprehend why this pretty 
little story could be untrue. They had such implicit confi- 
dence in their leaders, who were at that time making 
speeches throughout the country telling them that the coun- 
try was never so prosperous as then, that it was hard to 
convince them that a great panic was really upon them un- 




ISAAC P. GRAY. 

Permission of Chicasro Times. 



HEP UBLICAN MiSMANA GEMENT. 230 

til starvation and ruin stared them in the face. The people 
never thought that there Avas any difference between the 
earning and the purchasing power of money. The more 
scarce money is the harder it is to obtain, and its earning 
power is much more diminished in projDortion than its pur- 
chasing power is increased. When the purchasing power of 
money is great it is of great benefit to those who have much 
of it, but it is more than proportionately bad for those who 
have but little or none at all. When money increases in 
value the wealth of the creditor class, consisting principally 
of bankers, brokers, bondholders, and all those who deal 
exclusively in money, is increased in value at the same ratio, 
while the lands of the producer and his products decrease 
in a greater proportion in value. The creditor class always 
desire to see money high, and are constantly intriguing to 
bring about the contraction of money circulation for this 
reason. Those who have fixed incomes are benefited by 
high priced money, but the debtor class are injured to a 
greater extent than the creditor class are benefited by it. 
Take the item of taxes, which the farmer and all others en- 
gaged in those enterprises which sustain and su]3port the 
entire political and social fabric, cannot possibly escape. 
The face of such demands is never reduced w^hen money 
is scarce, but at such times the producer must lug to the 
market double the produce to pay his taxes than when 
money is plenty. The payment of taxes by the farmer can 
not be avoided in any event, but the opportunities for avoid- 
ing their payment by the broker, the banker, and the money 
changer are many. Even the law steps in and exempts the 
bonds held by the wealthy from all taxes, and which in- 
clude an enormous amount of capital. While it costs the 
industrial classes twice as much to pay their taxes and the 
interest on the money borrowed by them, when there is not 
a sufficient supply of money, the bondholder pays none, and 
receives his interest in high priced money. 

That an abundance of money is the greatest boon which 



240 REP VBLICAN MISMANA GEMENT. 

civilization can be blessed with, is conclusively proved by a 
reference to the period following the discovery of the gold 
fields of California and Australia. During that period a 
vast amount of gold and silver was added to the world's 
stock, hundreds of millions of which were coined into 
money. This increase of money revived and quickened the 
industries of the whole world. The development of wealth 
for the succeeding twenty-five years was enormous. The 
growth of production, trade and commerce, during that 
period, far exceeded that of any other period in the history 
of the world. The direct cause of this was the increase of 
the volume of money. Industries flourished, yielding a 
profit, after paying labor well for its services. Afterward 
silver was demonetized in the United States, England, 
Germany, and in the Scandinavian states, the evil influ- 
ences of which was felt to the furthest extremities of the 
earth. 

Then how monstrous the Republican idea that 1346,000,- 
000 of government notes should be retired and the coinage 
of silver cease, in the face of the fact that there is not one- 
tenth enough coin on the face of the globe to transact the 
world's business, and the population and demands of busi- 
ness are rapidly increasing. 

In 1865-6 the currency outstanding was at least $50 per 
capita. The total volume of money was over $1,900,000,- 
000. To-day, with a population nearly double what we 
then had, and the business demand for a money circulation 
five-fold greater, our volume of money is only about 
11,556,914,798, or about $26 per capita. Of this amount, 
over $550,000,000 is held in the treasury, and as national 
bank reserves, leaving outstanding about $1,000,000,000, or 
about $16 per capita. 

From good authority it is ascertained that Great 
Britain, after deducting legal reserves, has in actual circu- 
lation $24 per capita, and that France has in circulation 
about $35 per capita. As a consequence, France, which 



HEP UBLICAN MISMANA GEMENT. 241 

has, during the past century, been shaken from center 
to circumference by wars and revolutions, and at the 
same time carrying a heavy public debt, is the most 
prosperous nation in Europe for the reason that she has 
the greatest money circulation. Destroy the coinage of 
silver and withdraw the government notes from circu- 
lation, and the result would be to reduce the money 
circulation to about $11 per capita, with no possible means 
of supplying its place with any kind of money equally as 
safe, honest and valuable. 

It is estimated that the total debt of the country, 
national, state, county, municipal, railroad and individual, 
amounts to $20,000,000,000, or more than $310 for every 
man, woman and child in the land. Only think what a 
spectacle this is ! Individuals going into business with 
$11 per capita, and loaded with a debt of over $310 dollars 
each. This amount of indebtedness, all told, is more than 
the nation was worth in 1860. Consider with this small 
sum per capita, how many individuals must be deprived of 
their proper share of cash, to enable any one individual to 
obtain $100, $1,000, or $10,000, and some idea can be 
obtained how an insufficient supply of money must affect 
the industries and prosperity of the masses. Then consider 
how many engaged in business must necessarily keep on 
hand hundreds of dollars at all times, in order to success- 
fully manage their affairs, and the injustice of so small an 
amount of money more plainly appears, xilso consider so 
small an amount of money, per capita, to furnish money 
for the sales of capital or wealth amounting to over $60,- 
000,000,000; to pay national, state, county, city, corporation 
and individual indebtedness amounting to $20,000,000,000 ; 
to pay annually for the marketable products of all sorts, 
$15,000,000,000; to pay annual taxation. United States, 
county and town, $1,500,000,000; to pay annual interest on 
the public debt and private debts, $800,000,000 ; to pay for 
the annual operation and construction of railroads in the 

i6 



242 REPUBLICAN MISMANAGEMENT. 

United States, 12,000,000,000 ; to pay for annual imports 
into the United States, 1700,000,000; to pay for the sup- 
port of schools, colleges, churches, book concerns, news- 
papers, for building houses and towns, and to pay the per- 
sonal expenses of the millions that move every day upon 
our thoroughfares, 11,500,000,000. When we take into 
consideration all these demands, every reasonable person 
must come to the conclusion that we have not money 
enough in circulation, and that it should be increased 
greatly, instead of diminished. 

Is it possible that 65,000,000 of people do not need as 
much money circulation as 38,000,000 ? Is it not natural 
to suppose that, as the country grows older, increasing in 
population, thereby necessitating a corresponding extension 
of business, we should have a corresponding increase of 
money medium ? But the moneyed power, who have always 
had, and always will have the aid of Republican officials 
when they have control of the government, prefer to take 
the opposite course and lessen the amount of money circula- 
tion as population increases and the demands of business 
require more money. The first bugle announcing this pol- 
icy was sounded by Secretary McCulloch, in his first annual 
report, December 4th, 1865, wherein he said : 

The people are now comparatively free from debt. The expansion has now 
i-eached (of money) such a point as to be absolutely oppressive to a large 
portion of the people, while at the same time it is diminishing labor, and is 
becoming subversive of good morals. The remedy, and the only remedy 
w'ithin the control of Congress, is, in the opinion of the secretary, to be found 
in a reduction of the currency." 

Thus, through the secretary of the treasury, the mone- 
tary power commenced making tlieir desires known. He 
said that, in 1865 the people were comparatively out of 
debt, which was more than true. Houses had become 
multiplied and beautified, labor was employed at paying 
rates, and no such thing as strikes and labor troubles were 
known, farmers had money by them, and general prosperity 
prevailed, all brought about by a sufficient amount of 



BEP UBLICAN MIS3IANA GE3IENT. 243 

money circulation. What the secretary meant by saying 
that '' expansion of money has reached such a point as to be 
absolutely oppressive to a large portion of the people,, while 
at the same time it is diminishing labor and is becoming 
subversive of good morals/^ can only be comprehended by 
the immaculate. Every mortal Avho is possessed of as much 
brains as a beetle, must certainly denounce his assertions as 
deceptive and absolutely false. 

What large portion of the people were being oppressed ? 
Who ever heard of a people being oppressed on account of 
a respectable money circulation ? And yet, men in the 
highest official positions, whose duty it is to serve the peo- 
ple whom they represent, recommend that their money be 
taken from them and given to the sharks and blood-suckers, 
that labor may find employment and the morals of the peo- 
ple be preserved and maintained. 

His policy was carried out, and the people did become 
oppressed, not with too much money, but for the want of 
enough, and they have gone deeper and deeper in debt ever 
since. From 1866, from which time dates the commence- 
ment of their policy of contraction, bankruptcies increased 
until 1878, ^^as the figures on the dial of the clock indicate 
the numbers from one to twelve. ^^ The number of bank- 
ruptcies in the United States in 1866, according to commer- 
cial reports, was only 632, and the amount involved was 
only $47,000,000, while the failures of 1878 numbered 
10,478, and the amount involved was over $350,000,000. 
The failures of 1873 can hardly be numbered, while the 
amount involved and lost went up into the billions. So far 
as the improvement of the people was concerned, under the 
effects of the policy recommended and carried out by the 
secretary and his party, statistics show that history can give 
no parallel to the increase of crime and pauperism which 
followed. In the City of New York alone criminals and 
paupers increased from 13,000 in 1866 to 60,000 in 1878. 
These, in connection with the high tariff tax, were some of 



244 BEP UBLICAN MISMANA GEMENT. 

the consequences of taking the currency away from the 
people^ funding it into bonds^ and making no provision for 
a proper substitute. 

This same policy was openly advocated by Eepublicans in 
1874, and we here quote what Oarl Schurz, one of the prin- 
cipal spokesmen of the Eepublican party at that time, said 
in the United States Senate, February 24th, 1874 : 

Inflation will not increase the supply, for it will drive a larger proportion 
of the currency into the channels of speculation, and divert it from the 
channels of legitimate business. One hundred millions will not help you, and 
if you put out two hundred millions it will help you still less, for the appetite 
will not be satisfied ; it will only be stimulated by the supply. 

With every addition you make a larger proportion will go into the hands of 
those who have too much already, and use it for bad purposes ; and it will 
increase their power to keep it out of the hands of those who have not enough, 
and will use it for good purposes. 

Here we have a sample of the logic made use by the 
agents of the monetary power, however monstrous it may 
seem. This speech was made during the existence of the 
great panic, when it was proposed by a few friends of the 
producing classes to legislate once in their behalf, but they 
were confronted with such logic as we have quoted, and 
defeated. If such reasoning is correct, it necessarily fol- 
lows that" the people would be better off without any money 
circulation at all. In other words, the patient who is 
bleeding to death can be saved by goring him still deeper. 

The different conditions which a sufficiency and a 
scarcity of money bring about, cannot be illustrated better 
than by quoting what Eobert Ingersoll said in a speech 
made in Boston, when he was toadying to the Republican 
party. He referred to the period of 1865-6, and said : 
*^^0n every hand fortunes were being made; a wave of 
wealth swept over the United States ; huts became houses ; 
houses became palaces ; tatters became garments ; rags 
became robes, and walls were covered with pictures.'^ 

So far he told the truth, and he would have done much 
better had he stated what he knew to be the principal 
cause of such a state of prosperity. 




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REPUBLICAN MISMANAGEMENT. 247 

But he again said in the same speech : ^^Our wealth was 
a delusion and illusion, and we simply came back to reality/^ 

Are better houses, better garments, carpeted floors, and 
plenty of the necessaries of life a delusion ? It would seem 
to an ordinary individual, that when people are placed in a 
condition which enables them to obtain such things, they 
are a reality much more desirable than the tatters, rags, 
bare floors, and barren walls which sharks and blood-suckers 
would only render them able to possess by the passage of 
unjust laws. The people prefer waves of wealth to those of 
poverty. They prefer to be able to make fortunes, to build 
houses, cover their walls with pictures, and their floors with 
carpets, to being robbed and impoverished by shylocks and 
their agents, and thereby compelled to drag out a miserable 
existence in tatters and rags. 

It seems to be difficult for some people to understand 
why the obligations of indebtedness held by the wealthy 
become greatly enhanced in value in proportion to the 
contraction of the money circulation ; but we find that the 
creditor class, who hold all such obligations and indebted- 
ness, understand it. In 1870 and 1871 the five and six 
per cent, bonds were funded into four and four and a half 
per cent, bonds, and the people were informed that a great 
saving to them had been brought about. This would have 
been the case had everything been equal. But the currency 
had been greatly contracted, while the population and busi- 
ness enterprises were fast increasing, thus resulting in a 
further contraction. Hence the bondholders plainly saw 
that money was being constantly enhanced in value ; and, 
as such a policy seemed to be established by government 
officials, they considered that their securities would continue 
to become more valuable. They were, therefore, perfectly 
willing to exchange their five and six per cent, bonds for 
four and four and a half per cent, bonds. They saw that 
their profits would not be reduced, or they would not have 
uiiid§ the exchange. The bondholder also saw that he 



248 . REPUBLICAN MISMANAGEMENT. 

obtained another advantage which he had not before, and 
that was, that he would receive his interest quarterly, and a 
little figuring will show that four and four and a half per cent, 
interest, payable quarterly, is better, when compounded, 
in the long run, than five and six per cent, payable annu- 
ally or semi-annually. Men who deal in money exclusively, 
or depend for their profits on the amount of interest 
collected, make no mistake against themselves. They 
know that when the volume of money is contracted one-half, 
the half remaining is worth far more than it was before, 
and that the interest on money loaned under such circum- 
stances will yield a greater profit than money invested in 
ordinary enterprises. 

People often wonder why times become and remain 
^'^hard," as the term is, for years in succession; and many 
of them have been lead into the superstitious belief that 
such times are caused by some mysterious freak of nature, 
which nobody can understand or account for. The general 
cause of such occurrences is well understood by the 
moneyed monopolists. They love to see people duped and 
deceived in regard to the effects of financial legislation, and 
the cause of business and financial depression. They would 
have everybody believe that a dollar in money is worth just 
as much one time as another, whether there is 11,000,000 
or 11,000,000,000 in circulation. They know that such is 
not the case. Money is dear or cheap, according to the 
amount in circulation, and when it is scarce everybody goes 
in debt. 

England has carried on the high-priced money system 
until a wealthy aristocracy, consisting of a very small per 
cent, of her people own nearly all the land contained in the 
United Kingdom, and all the English bonded indebtedness. 
There, a bonded indebtedness is kept and preserved for the 
benefit of the nobility, the same as the monetary power and 
their agents ^mong us woi]ld have our bonds made perpet- 



REP UBLICAN MISMANa GEMENT. 249 

iial for their benefit. A financial despotism there reigns 
supreme. 

Bat in this country we need no bonded indebtedness for 
the benefit of an aristocracy, although such an establish- 
ment has been unceasingly striven for by the moneyed 
power during the past twenty years. So strong is the 
desire for such a result, that the monetary power looks 
with great disfavor upon any kind of money except gold 
and national bank notes. If this kind of money could be 
made to constitute the only kind of circulating medium in 
the land, it would result in the perpetual existence of the 
bonds. To accomplish this, silver coinage must stop, and 
the government notes be withdrawn. Then the banks will 
have full power to contract the currency to their heart's 
content. 

Why withdraw the government notes from circulation ? 
They once denounced them as irredeemable paper, which 
they cannot now do, as they are exchangeable for coin on 
hand for that purpose. Even the charge made by Kepublican 
leaders, who assisted in their creation, that they were irre- 
deemable paper, was absolutely false. They were redeem- 
able paper, and the government promised to pay them 
precisely the same as they promised to pay the bonds. The 
government never did issue any irredeemable paper. Both 
the notes and the bonds are founded upon the faith and 
credit of the government. One was as certain to be paid as 
the other. Of course, there was a time when the govern- 
ment could not have paid those notes on presentation, for 
want of funds, any more than it could have paid its total 
bonded indebtedness, but the notes have always been 
redeemable paper, the same as the bonds. 

Probably no kind of currency was ever more misrepre- 
sented, traduced, belied and falsified than these notes by 
Wall street and its agents. One public man, a Eepublican, 
and afterward president of the United States, said, in a 



250 BEP UBLICAN MISMANA GEMENT. 

speecli made in Boston, concerning the government notes, 
that : 

*^^It has crippled our industries, shaken our confidence, 
robbed our poor men, blasted our hopes/^ 

How strange it is that public men become so completely 
wrapped up in the interests of the moneyed power as to 
publicly proclaim such unreasonable and unmitigated false- 
hoods. Our hopes were not blasted, nor the poor man 
robbed by the issue and use of those notes. On the con- 
trary, they enabled the government to prosecute the war to 
a successful termination, built up our industries, strength- 
ened our confidence and inspired the hopes of the nation. 
The Kepublican party and its officials, laboring in behalf 
of capital and wealth, crippled our industries and robbed 
the poor man, and will, if they ever obtain what they con- 
sider a permanent control of both houses of Congress, rob 
the nation of its silver and the balance of the government 
notes, and finally starve the poor man to death. 

They called the government notes dishonest. The 
charge was false, and came from foul and dishonest lips. 
The notes were more honest than gold, for, while they 
entered into the thickest of the fight for the preservation 
of the Union, '^gold was cowardly, shrank from the per- 
formance of its honest duties, hid in the vaults of the 
great money centers, where it was carefully hoarded by its 
cowardly and rapacious owners, and would not come forth 
until the government had conferred upon it a title of 
nobility and assigned it to a duty not beyond that of dress 
parade.'^ 

The government notes were more honest than bonds, for 
they were constantly at work among the people stimulating 
their industries and sustaining the life and well being of the 
masses, free of charge and expense, while the bond never 
works, but lies hid in vaults, only coming forth quarterly, 
for the purpose of *^ demanding the premium which has 
been conferred upon it for its idleness and sloth. ^^ The 



BEPUBLICAN 3IIS3IANAGEMENT. 251 

note is a benefactor, the bond a blood-sucker. One stimu- 
lates and builds up our enterprises, the other saps the life- 
blood from the arteries of the nation. 

Kepublican contractionists have talked much concerning 
honest money, and money of the world, as they call it, as if 
it was violating all the laws and customs of the universe to 
refuse to recognize gold as the only coin suitable and national 
bank notes as the only fit ^Daper money to be used in conduct- 
ing business with the outside world. So far as the money 
of the world is concerned, there is no such thing, nor never 
has been. Our coin, whether consisting of gold or silver, 
is recognized only as a commodity when it goes abroad, and 
when foreign coin comes to us it is received for Avhat it is 
worth as bullion. Our coin is not a legal tender in any 
foreign country, neither is foreign coin a legal tender with 
us. Neither is the paper money of one country a legal ten- 
der in any other. Hence all this talk about the money of 
the world is a blind and a fraud. Honest money, with the 
monetary power, is only such as they demand, the volume 
of which they control and which enables them to corner the 
government whenever they desire, as they did when they per- 
suaded the government to refuse to confer upon the gov- 
ernment notes a full legal tender quality, thus giving to 
sharks the power to depreciate them at pleasure. 

That banks are necessary, nobody will dispute ; but the 
great difficulty is, the national banks desire to stop the 
coinage of silver, and the issue of silver certificates, and 
the withdrawal of the legal-tender notes, so that our paper 
currency shall consist only of their own notes. This would 
give them absolute power to regulate the volume of our 
currency. For years the national banks have striven for 
absolute dominion over the currency, and should the 
Republican party obtain sufficient power, the banks will, 
undoubtedly, become monarchs of all they can survey. 
They would then be the most powerful monopoly on the 
face of the globe, with no restraint, whenever they wished 



252 BEPUBLICAN MISMANAGEMENT. 

to use their power as an engine of oppression. If the old 
United States bank was an oppressive and dangerous monop- 
oly, which seems to be generally admitted, what would 
the present system be, with its 3,350 banks scattered into 
every part of the country, Avith its capital stock of 1700,- 
000,000, and their years of accumulated profits, amount- 
ing to 14,000,000,000, and favored with more special privi- 
leges than any other known class of corjoorations. It is 
admitted by what is known as the honest-money league of 
the Northwest, in a pamphlet scattered broadcast over the 
country, a few years since, that, '' The Second United 
States Bank did cause financial disaster by contracting dis- 
counts, as is charged, for the purpose of teaching Jackson 
its power/' 

Yes, that bank not only taught Jackson its power, but 
it also taught the people its power, to their sorrow. It had 
sufficient power to place the country in a flourishing condi- 
tion by inflating, and to produce general disaster by 
contracting the circulation of its notes. Were the national 
bankers the noble souls which the honest money league 
says they are, in the following language, it might be 
different, to wit : 

'^ They submitted to the exactions of the new law, and 
one by one the principal banks of the country organized 
under it. They accepted it as a permanent system, not for 
their oion benefit, hut for the good of the country J' 

Noble souls ! Who ever supposed that such patriotism 
and such disinterestedness could ever be found lodged in 
the breasts of bankers ! For twenty-flve years these poor 
souls have been laboring, not for their own benefit, but 
exclusively for the good of the country. 

No, it is not true. They have labored for their own 
benefit with a rapacity that knows no bounds. They want 
no currency except their own, -for the less there is, the more 
theirs will be worth. The power which they seek to obtain 
over the currency of the country cannot be more plainly 



MEP tlBLiCAN MiSMANA GEM^JSfT. 253 

stated tliaii by Carl Schurz iu a speech made by him in the 

state of Ohio in 1879 in the interests of national banks. It 

is needless to say that Mr. Schurz was sent out by John 

Sherman for the pnrpose of preaching this doctrine to his 

constituents in Ohio. The powers mentioned by him he 

desired taken away from the goyernment and conferred 

upon the national banks. He said : 

And think for a moment what kind of a power this is : To determine how 
much or how little money the people shall have, and by regulating the volume 
of cuiTency to change its value ; to determine arbitrarily what every dollar in 
the land shall be worth from week to week and from day to day. As I said on 
another occasion, the current value of eveiy piece of property, of every article 
of merchandise, of eveiy private fortune, of every chance the contractor has 
m his contract, of every dollar the laboring man has in the savings bank, or the 
merchant on deposit, will be at the mercy of the government. Ko man can 
make an investment, no merchant can buy or sell a lot of goods on time, no 
manufacturer can accept an order, no contractor can make a contract for a 
))ublic or private structure, no workingman can make a contract for wages 
without the government having it in its power to determine their profit or 
their loss, their success or ruin. 

Why not leave those powers with the government where 
they belong ? The government must either exercise them, 
or delegate the power to do so to the banks. Those powers 
are inherent in the government, and it may exercise them, 
or delegate them. Would the exercise of those powers be 
less apt to be abused by rapacious bankers, who labor only 
in their own personal interest, than when exercised by the 
people through their representatives ? The power to create 
money and to regulate its volume is a sovereign power, and 
the American idea is that sovereign jDOwer is exercised by 
the people through their representatives. It is claimed 
that such powers are subject to abuse, but the constitution 
has wisely provided that the representatives of the people 
should be chosen, often, that abuses of sovereign power 
might be both corrected and guarded against. But if the 
powers mentioned by Schurz, " to determine arbitrarily 
what every dollar in the land shall be worth," are placed in 
the hands of a bank oligarchy, with perpetual vested rights, 
those powers pass absolutely beyond the control of the 



*i54 21:P UBLtCAN MWMAi^A aEM^NT. 

peo23le. It would be equivalent to placing the control of 
our finances in the hands of Wall and Lombard streets. 
Place the control of the volume of our currency into the 
hands of the national banks and they will have the control 
of our industries, enterprises, morals, education, and all 
things else. ^^The man who contends that the peo23le 
through their representatives, are not safe custodians of 
sovereign powers so important as these, cannot be sufficiently 
Americanized to render him a safe counselor in con- 
ducting a republic." 

In January, 1890, a bill was hurriedly introduced in the 
House of Eepresentatives, to the exclusion of other more 
important business, solely in the interest of national bank 
corjDorations. The bill provides that, without any further 
security, notes be issued to the banks to the amount of the 
face of the bonds now on deposit, and to give to all banks, 
heretofore organized, notes to the full amount of such other 
bonds as may be deposited. The arguments produced in 
favor of this measure seem to be that the people want more 
money in circulation. This is unquestionably true. But 
it seems that, during the past four years at least, the national 
banks have been contracting their circulation. Did they 
do this for the purpose of showing that the coinage of silver 
would not increase that circulation, and that the coinage of 
silver was not just the thing needed ? The advocates of 
this measure followed up their statements concerning a need 
of more money circulation, by insisting that the national 
banks should be allowed to furnish that needed circulation. 
This is in perfect harmony with what we have hereto- 
fore stated, that the power to regulate and control the 
currency of this country is to be delegatjed to the national 
banks forever. Those who advocated that measure inti- 
mated that the bank currency was the best, but insisted that 
if something more was not done for the benefit of those 
poor, suffering institutions, whereby their circulation was 
not made more profitable, the banks would all surrender 



E^P UBLtCAN MISMANA GEMENT. 255 

their notes. AVhat ii terrible threat that was ! They know 
very well that such a surrender is just what is wanted on 
the part of the people, and that no occurrence could take 
place which would so relieve the nation as to be cut loose 
from the bleeding processes of the most rapacious set of 
cormorants that ever infested a civilized people. Govern- 
ment notes, silver and silver certificates, together with gold 
and gold certificates, constitute the best money that can be 
circulated ; because their volume can always be controlled 
by the representatives of the people, who should always 
have control of the volume and character of our currency. 
The national banks have always op230sed, in the most dis- 
honorable modes, the coinage of silver, and the issuance of 
paper currency receivable for all debts and based upon a 
coin reserve. They have heretofore claimed, as a reason 
therefor, that more money was not needed for transacting 
the business of the country. What they should say is, 
that more money is not needed as a circulating medium, 
unless it consists of national bank notes, which would en- 
able the banks, owned and controlled by a few thousand 
sharks, to have control of the pros]Derity and morals of this 
people. How can the people trust bank stockholders, who 
do business for their own private gain, to regulate the 
money circulation of the country ? It would give them 
the dangerous power to expand and contract the currency at 
pleasure. The banks, or least their agents in Congress, 
complain that their business is not profitable. According 
to the best information that can be gathered from the 
winds that blow, and otherwise, their complaints are false 
and wofully misleading. The fact that they draw the 
interest quarterly on their bonds, in addition to what other 
banks receive, and generally charge enormous rates of 
interest on their loans, give the lie to their assertions. If 
their business is unprofitable why, in the name of common 
business principles, do they not close their doors ? Any 
set of men who are unable to do business and prosper 



256 BEJP UBLICAN MISMANA GEMENT. 

where they are allowed to draw interest quarterly in gold 
on their bonds, which are exempt from taxation, and which 
is a better profit than is realized from the same amount of 
capital invested in most other business pursuits, besides 
receiving a gift from the government, in the shape of cur- 
rency, of as much more, with which to fleece the peojole by 
charging exorbitant interest, ought to retire from business. 
The banks now have, in the shape of capital j)roper, 45 per 
cent, of the money in circulation in the United States, and 
still, while endowed with more special favors than any 
other institution on top of earth, they are constantly 
demanding that something shall be done in justice to their 
piratical concerns. Congress is requested by the agents of 
the national banks to do far too much to sustain their 
existence. The banks understand, and correctly too, that 
the people desire to. see every bond paid, and that 
the circulating medium shall consist of government 
money, to be used by all classes alike, with special 
favors shown to none. Seeing this, the banks either 
desire an opportunity to deposit wildcat municipal 
bonds as security for the currency issued by the government 
and given to them, or that the government issue bonds 
bearing 2 or 2-J per cent, interest, and running fifty years, 
to constitute a basis for the national banks. While the 
Lord knows that the people desire to see the abolition of 
the national banks, either of the foregoing propositions 
would result in perpetuating that system. Besides, it 
would insure the perpetuity of the gift of currency already 
received by them, insure the perpetual existence of an 
amount of bonds necessary, not only for the basis of the 
banks already in existence, but for all those which would be 
organized hereafter, and insure the payment of interest by 
the people of an unlimited amount of bonds, which could 
be of no earthly use save and except to benefit an arrogant 
banking oligarchy. Why can not banks do business upon 
government money, and upon their own money, the same 



HEP UBLtCAN MISMANA GEMENT. 'lol 

as other j)eople are required to do ? With approved securi- 
ties, men who desire to engage in the banking business can 
procure the money for the purpose the same as the mer- 
chant, the blacksmith, the farmer, or the manufacturer. 

Much has been said concerning wild-cat banks of issue 
which existed prior to 1861, and many have talked as if the 
abolition of the national banking system would necessarily 
involve a restoration of that old system. Such talk is 
indulged in by hypocrites and demagogues to mislead the 
people. Are there not thousands of banks in the country 
to-day doing business, that are not national banks ? They 
are transacting business upon their own money the same as 
men engaged in other private enterprises. Tlie national 
banks have an advantage over them, for the government 
grants the national banks special favors not shown to the 
others. AYhy should the government show special favors to 
a certain class of bankers doing business for their own per- 
sonal gain, to the exclusion of all those engaged in other 
classes of business ? There is no ground for the scare 
Avhich is attempted, that the wild-cat banks would be 
restored, for nobody has nor ever will ask for the repeal 
of the tax which forbids the existence of such concerns. 
There is no question but the national bank notes are 
good and safe, for the government loans its credit to the 
national banks. But they are no more entitled to borrow 
the credit of the government than the farmers, the mechan- 
ics, or any other class of business men. Therefore, let the 
banks, one and all, do business upon government money, 
made a legal tender for all purposes, and issued alike for 
the benefit of all. 

The time has certainly come when it is necessary to check 
the monetary power in its greedy grasp for power and gain. 
Legislation, during the past twenty-five years, has been 
almost entirely in their interest, and government officials have 
become accustomed to violate plain provisions of statute law 
for the purpose of conferring special favors upon them. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE SILVER QUESTIOI^. 

THE moneyed power desires that the coin of the country 
be confined absolutely to gold, in order that they may 
be able, in case of an emergency, caused by some internal 
commotion, or a war with some foreign nation, or nations, 
to control its volume. In case of such an emergency, were 
silver destroyed as money, the bankers and brokers could 
easily control all the coin. The government would be 
placed in the same position it was in 1861, compelled to 
borrow or issue its own currency. With gold constituting 
the only coin, and duties shut oif, in consequence of war, 
the money sharks would have the power to depreciate, and 
purchase the currency issued by the government, as they 
did before, and then, ask the government to fund the same 
into interest-bearing bonds for their benefit. 

But were silver placed upon an equal footing with gold, 
a large amount would remain on deposit in the treasury, as 
well as in actual circulation among the people, and the 
business of the bankers and brokers, so far as cornering 
the government is concerned, would be virtually forestalled. 
They could not then force a premium on gold, for silver 
would be plenty, and would stand guard against the 
piratical attacks of money sharks in the absence of gold. 
This is one of the greatest reasons why they desire to 
destroy silver as money. 

Another reason why the moneyed power does not want a 
further coinage of silver is that such coinage has a tendency 
to supply the country with an amount of money commen- 
surate with the continued increase of population and busi- 

258 



THE StLVm QUESTION. 259 

ilGss. Our population is fast increasing, and the demand 
for money is increasing at the same ratio. But they desire 
a decrease in the vohime of money as population and busi- 
ness increases. They deal principally in money, and they 
are aware that, the more scarce money is, the easier it is 
for them to control its volume and dictate the price of all 
kinds of property. They are fond of cramping the circu- 
lating medium into so narrow a limit that the land may 
resemble a country grave-yard. AVall street lias been con- 
tinually clamoring for a contraction of the money circula- 
tion, and will never cease its exertions in that direction 
until the financial affairs of the government are placed in 
the hands of the friends of the people. Demonetization in 
1873 was for the purpose of preventing an increase in the 
volume of money and a scheme on the part of the moneyed 
power to force the payment of the principal and interest of 
the bonds in gold, without any regard to the fact that those 
bonds are payable in silver or gold at the option of the gov- 
ernment by the terms of the law in pursuance of which they 
were issued. 

It is somewhat interesting to contemplate some of the 
schemes which have been resorted to by the moneyed 
power for the purpose of rendering silver unpopular with 
the people. They created what is known as the trade 
dollar, but failed to give it any legal tender quality. In 
fact they stamped the repudiation of the government upon 
it so far as any of the qualities to which money is entitled 
are concerned, and, although it contains seven and a half 
grains more of silver than our present dollar, it could not, 
as a matter of course, be recognized as money. Such a 
thing as a government creating a coin not clothed with legal 
tender power had never before been heard of, and this little 
piece of deception on the part of wise Republican legisla- 
tors did not win. They were endeavoring to create a large 
dollar which would not circulate at home on account of its 
non-legal tender quality, and which might be purchased 



260 THE ^ILVMB QtlESTtON. 

and transported from tlie country as bnllion;, so that they 
would not result in swelling the amount of circulating 
medium. Their great object was to discourage the coinage 
of silver by convincing the people that the dollar of 412^ 
grains^ if coined and endowed with legal tender qualities 
the same as gold^ would not be worth one hundred cents 
in gold coin. They failed to delude the masses, who have 
come to the conclusion that a silver dollar which will 
purchase the gold dollar, or the bullion of .which it is com- 
posed, is as good and as honest as any dollar can be. 

It was proposed by John Sherman and a few others of 
the same school that, if. silver could not be destroyed as 
money, they should create the wagon-wheel dollar of 480 
grains, in the face of the fact that the silver dollar of 412^ 
grains is preferred to the gold dollar. Is not the silver 
dollar of 412|- grains large and- heavy enough for all practi- 
cal purposes as money ? Why should it be made larger, 
except it be for the sole purpose of discouraging its use as 
money, on account of its burdensome weight ? No dollar 
of the same size and weight has ever failed, when a full 
tender, to sustain itself as the equal of the gold dollar, and 
the time will never come when it will not be able to hold 
its own with gold. If silver is to be coined, the cart-wheel 
dollar is what they want, with no legal tender qualities 
attached to it. Then it would be so large that it would be 
purchased as bullion and melted up for mechanical pur- 
poses, and thus have no effect upon the volume of money. 
Having none of the qualities essential to money, it would 
not circulate as such at home, and when it reached foreign 
bullion markets it would never return. 

John Sherman now claims that, by the passage of the 
^^ bullion purchase swindle,'"' an honest dollar has been 
created. But there are some Eepublican newspapers hon- 
est enough to expose this bullion swindle concocted by 
Sherman, Harrison and Wall street. The Chicago Tribune 
says :- 



THE SILVER QUESTION. 261 

The practical working of the act, is to take silver out of the list of com- 
mercial exportable articles, to pile it up in the treasury vaults and to send 
gold abroad instead. In course of time every ounce of gold mined in the 
United States will find its way across the ocean to the vaults of European 
l)ankers, with the exception of what is used in the filling of American teeth 
and the manufacture of American jewelry. The quantity of gold coined at 
United States mints has been decreasing steadily. In 1881 it was $130,000,000. 
During the fiscal year ending July 1, 1890, it was $42,000,000. 

Concerning the silver bullion bill unci the remarks of the 
Chicago Tribune^ the St. Louis Republic makes the follow- 
ing very correct and pertinent remarks: 

This is a candid statement hardly to be expected from the Tribune in con- 
nection with a measure for which its friends, Shennan and Harrison, are 
responsible. But it leaves something more to be said of the effects of this 
swindle. Let us see first what it does : 

1. It creates a new legal tender paper, which must be taken for debts at its 
face value regardless of whether it has real exchange value equal to its face 
or not. 

2. It makes this legal tender fiat money out of a warehouse receipt issued 
on silver bullion as a commodity, just as elevator receipts are issued on wheat 
as a commodity. 

3. It locks up in the treasury vaults the silver bullion on which the ware- 
house receipt is issued and leaves it there uncoined and withdrawn from cir- 
culation just as long as the secretary of the treasury wishes to keep it there. 

4. It does not take up the certificate of deposit by giving back what was 
deposited, but allows the secretary to redeem it in gold raised by tariff taxes 
on the people. 

5. It allows the secretary of the treasury to influence the price of silver 
bullion, and invites speculators, whose bullion certificates have been redeemed 
in gold to reinvest them in more bullion, to be deposited in the treasury 
vaults when it rises in price, thus realizing a profit at the expense of the 
treasuiy. 

This is what the law does. iS'ow let us see what the effects of such a law 
must be : 

1. To inject into the currency a bastard legal tender that has in it the 
same element of speculation that an elevator receipt for Avheat has in it. 

2. To prevent the exportation of silver bullion by locking it up in our 
treasury vaults, so that silver is crowded out of our foreign trade, and at 
home and abroad the burden of carrying our trade is put on a supply of gold 
notoriously inadequate for the purposes of either home or foreign trade. 

3. The steady contraction of the currency bj' the redemption of the bullion 
notes in gold, the bullion remaining uncoined in the treasury, the gold going 
abroad to settle trade balances, and so disappearing from our circulation, 
though it is still counted as ''in circulation" by the treasuiy statements. 

4. The contraction of the cuiTency by the issue of these legal tender ware- 
house receipts in denominations of $1,000 for 1,000 ounces of silver bullion 



262 THE SILVER QUESTION. 

and upward, each dollar in the thousand-dollar legal tender warehouse receipt 
representing a higher bullion weight than the silver certificate based on Bland 
dollars, and the thousand-dollar legal tender receipts, by reason of their high 
denomination, being far more available for bullion speculation than for circu- 
lation among the people. 

If the Tribune will examine more closely into the bullion purchase swin- 
dle, it can hardly avoid seeing that all this was carefully put into it by the 
men who concocted it, and that there could not be a more fraudulent dollar 
than the swindling legal tender treasury warehouse receipt, for which John 
Sherman is criminally responsible. 

This storage bill should have been entitled a bill to pre- 
vent the coinage of silver, for the receipts are not to be re- 
deemed with the bullion stored, but in gold, and when 
redeemed go out of circulation. The receipts do not repre- 
sent any fixed amount of bullion, and the bullion is to re- 
main uncoined. Thus it appears to be very plain that the 
act was passed for the very purpose of preventing the coin- 
age of silver. 

This bill for warehousing silver bullion, drawn by the 
Harrison administration, steered by John Sherman and 
passed by the Reed Congress, is a fine illustration of the 
fraudulent practices of the Republican party in relation to 
silver. Certain bullion men want to pass what they denom- 
inate the '^'^Subtreasury Bill."^ 

This warehouse silver bullion bill is drawn on the same principle, except 
that the advocates of federal storage for wheat are foolish enough to want their 
wheat back, instead of having their legal tender certificates of deposits issued 
to them at its gold value and redeemable in gold or silver coin at the discre- 
tion of the secretary of the treasury. 

If they would amend their subtreasury bill by taking the Harrison- Sherman 
Bullion Storage Act and substituting " unperishable farm products" for 
" silver bullion," they could do a great deal that the bullion speculators can 
do under the Sherman act, but which could not be done under the subtreasury 
bill. 

Where a bullion speculator now takes 1,000 ounces of bullion for storage in 
the treasury, the farmer or wheat speculator could then take 1,000 bushels of 
wheat to the treasury or subtreasury. Wheat being worth $1 a bushel in gold, 
on storing it he would receive a thousand-dollar legal tender certificate of 
deposit, which the secretary of the treasury would be authorized to redeem, 
not in wheat, but in gold. 

^j this storage the fall of the wheat in mill would not affect him disas- 
trously. He would not have to pay margins or pay storage fees. On the con- 



THE SILVER QUESTION. 263 

trarj, if wheat fell from $1 to 50 cents a bushel, he could take his $1,000 legal 
tender storage receipt or his $1,000 in gold and buy 2,000 bushels of wheat 
with it. Holding this wheat until it rose to 75 cents a bushel, he could store 
his 2,000 bushels in the treasury or subtreasury and draw a $1,500 legal tender 
on it, clearing $500 cash out of the treasury in the transaction. 

This is exactly what goes on under the Harrison-Sherman Bullion Storage 
act, under which, instead of putting up for margins on his bullion, the specu- 
lator simply stores it in the treasuiy and gets its price in gold represented by 
his legal tender storage receipt, which he can either use as a legal tender or 
cash for gold while waiting for a fall of a cent or so in bullion. "When the fall 
comes he can buy more bullion, and at the next rise store it in the treasury, 
get his legal tender certificate and draw his profits out of the gold collected 
by tariff taxes. 

The subtreasury schemers understand lunacy, but Mr. John Sherman under- 
stands '• finance," and this bullion storage swindle is Wall street finance on a 
gold basis. All the subtreasuiy lunatics have to do to get themselves on a per- 
fectly sound Wall street financial basis is to put " wheat" in place of " silver 
bullion " wherever bullion is mentioned in the bullion storage act. Then, 
with a few years' education in Wall street methods, they can loot the treasury 
and rob the taxpayers at their leisure, with the great consolation of knowing 
that they are operating on the gold basis and on the exact rule of the finance 
of Messrs. John Sheimanand Benjamin Harrison. 

In speaking of the coinage of silver at Ada, Ohio, 
October 8th, 1891, Mr. McKinley said that ^^The Republi- 
can party stands, therefore, for a dollar worth 100 cents, 
whether it be gold, silver, or paper, and approves of the 
legislation of the last Congress which requires the govern- 
ment to buy $4,500,000 of silver every month at its market 
value." 

In this connection he forgot to say that the silver so pur- 
chased is to remain stored and uncoined, and he also forgot 
to make any demonstration showing that the dollar of 412-2- 
grains is, or ever has been, worth less than 100 cents. 

Mr. McKinley again said in the same speech, that " The 
treasury note thus issued has behind it a dollar^s worth of 
silver purchased at its market value." 

But Mr. McKinley and other Republican lights, claim 
that silver bullion fluctuates in the market. If this be 
true, then the treasury note issued for the silver would not 
be worth 100 cents on the dollar when the price of silver 
should fall in the market, provided their views in regard to 



264 THE SILVER QUESTION. 

the value of the Bland dollar is correct, notwithstanding 
the silver storage certificate is made a legal tender for all 
purposes. This is wonderful consistency indeed. 

At the same time Mr. McKinley also said, in speaking 
of the silver legislation of 1878, that ^^the differences 
between what the government paid for silver and the face 
value of the silver dollar amounted in twelve years to 
$67,000,000, which went to the benefit of the 63,000,000, of 
people. The Eepublican party says that if there is to be 
any profit in this matter of money making it should go to 
the government."^ 

Why was it then that the Eepublican party and its 
officials did not approve of the provisions of the legislation 
of 1878, if they are so anxious that the government should 
make the profits, if any there be, in the coining of .metal 
into money ? Under the provisions of the Bland bill, 
though the producers of silver bullion sold the same to the 
government at prices from 86 to 95 cents per ounce, the 
profits accrued to the benefit of all the taxpayers alike. In 
twelve years this benefit amounted to |67,.000,000. But to 
whom have the provisions of this Republican silver storage 
bill given the profits of whatever can be made under 
it. If any profits attach to operations under it they will 
accrue to speculators in silver bullion, as we have before 
known, and not to the government. 

McKinley strongly objects to the silver producers re- 
ceiving dollar for dollar for their bullion, and in that 
immediate connection* grossly misrepresents the price of 
silver bullion in the market. It would indeed be far better 
that the producer should realize full value for his bullion 
than to permit sharks and stock gamblers to speculate 
thereon at the expense of the people. 

Neither is the Bland dollar a short or a clipped dollar, as 
Sherman and McKinley are asserting. When labor or crops 
have been sold during the past twelve years the seller has 
never refused the silver or silver certificate in payment, for 



THE SILVER QUESTION. 265 

the reason that he received that which was worth as much 
as he gave for it. He knows that the silver dollar has held 
and always will hold its own with the gold dollar^ and he fur- 
ther knows that the creation of silver dollars has had no ten- 
dency to drive gold from this or any other country, as we have 
fully demonstrated elsewhere. McKinley says that the 
government has purchased silver for less than its coin value, 
dollar for dollar, and has compelled the people to receive it 
for 100 cents. But he fails to show where the farmers 
or laboring men, have ever failed to receive 100 cents, 
either in gold coin or in any of the necessaries of life which 
they have desired to purchase. If Mr. McKinley or any of 
his friends have on hand a quantity of American dollars 
which they claim are worth only 76 cents each, he or they 
can dispose of them at any time at a handsome profit. And 
if Mr. McKinley, or any other individual, will provide 
themselves with ten or twenty dollar gold pieces from the 
mint before they are stamped, and go into our banks or 
trading houses for the purpose of passing them as ten and 
twenty dollar coins, he will find that such pieces would 
have to be disposed of in the market from ten to twenty per 
cent, below what the stamped coin would sell for, and 
his exalted ideas as to the market value of gold bullion as 
compared to its value when coined, would become clipped. 
The best proof of the pudding is chewing the string, they 
say. 

A sound financial policy calls for a coin as well as paper 
money, which will remain at home at all times and under 
all circumstances. Silver coin is far more apt to remain at 
home, performing all the duties necessary to keep in motion 
the great business interests of the country than gold, and 
if a sufficient amount of silver be annually coined, it will 
constitute one of the greatest possible safeguards against 
money panics. Grold is more liable to go and come as it is 
aifected by trade. It is loved best by financial cormorants, 
and is easily transported across the waters to foreign coun- 



266 THE SILVEB QUESTION. 

tries. Silver is too heavy to be handled quickly by the 
^^ bulls ^' and ^^bears/^ and cannot be gathered up from 
among the people where it is performing its duty as money. 
If the actual silver coin is not in circulation, the silver cer- 
tificate, its representative, is, while the actual coin is on 
deposit in the treasury for its redemption, and cannot be 
drawn without presentation of the certificate. Then why 
should we permit only a limited coinage of silver ? 

Before resumption, as they called it, took place, it was said 
that all the paper money should be based upon coin ; that all 
the paper money which could be based u|)on one-third of its 
amount in coin would be perfectly safe, and they based the 
government notes, accordingly, upon that amount. After- 
ward, when the silver coinage act was passed, in 1878, it 
was provided that the government should purchase silver 
bullion, coin the same into money, and issue silver certifi- 
cates therefor, when desired, in convenient form and 
denominations, by which means all the silver coined might, 
if the holders of the certificates so desired, remain on 
deposit in the treasury until called for. By this means a 
paper currency based upon a coin reserve, dollar for dollar, 
was established. But since the passage of the coinage act 
the very men who were so anxious to have the currency 
based upon a one-third coin basis now seriously object to 
placing in circularfcion a paper money based upon silver 
coin, dollar for dollar. This objection originated with the 
bankers, brokers and bondholders, who have never wanted the 
bonds paid, either principal or interest, in silver, nor the 
currency increased to meet the increase in population and 
business. Their tendency is all in one direction, viz., that 
gold and national bank notes shall constitute the only 
money of the country, and the bonds exist forever for the 
benefit of the national banks. National banks are bond- 
holders, and national banks are the result of bonds. It is, 
therefore, certain that the bondholders Mvill never cease 
their o_pposition to the payment of the bonds^ nor to the 




DAVID B. HILL. 

Permission of Chicago Times. 



THE SILVER QUESTION. 2G9 

existence of any kind of paper money except national bank 
notes. 

It is certain that silver certificates based upon the coin, 
dollar for dollar, is a better currency than the national 
bank notes : 

1st. Because the former renders the payment of the 
bonds possible, while the latter renders their payment 
impossible. 

2nd. Because silver certificates are just as convenient, 
worth more, because a legal tender for all debts, and cost 
the government nothing. 

3rd. Because the national banks are a monopoly. They 
draw a fair compensation from the government in the 
shape of interest on their bonds, while the government 
makes them a present of as much more in the shape of cur- 
rency. The government doubles their capital in business, 
and receives no compensation therefor. 

Of course the banks are opposed to silver, and the silver 
certificates. They desire to furnish all the paper currency ; 
and why not, as it is furnished by the government, and 
costs them nothing. 

The people do not consider that there is any immediate 
danger of the country being overstocked with silver or with 
any other kind of money. In fact, most people prefer sil- 
ver to gold. It is probably the oldest coin known, and the 
most familiar to mankind. With it England laid the foun- 
dation of her power between 1717 and 1797, daring all of 
which time silver was the standard money of the realm. In 
1792 provision was made for the coinage of silver in the 
United States. The law provided that the dollar should be 
a legal tender for all debts, public and private, and up to 
about 1849 nearly all outstanding obligations of the govern- 
ment were paid and redeemed with silver coin. All the 
currency issued for the purpose of carrying on the war of 
the revolution, the war of 1812 with England, and the war 
with Mexico in 1848 >y^s redeenied with silver coin, and it 



270 THE SILVER QUESTION, 

would not have been a very bad state of circumstances had 
the government been possessed of large quantities of silver 
with which to have paid the expenses of the late war of the 
rebellion. Bat notwithstanding the great good which sil- 
ver has done^ and would do for us hereafter if permitted, 
the moneyed power aim to strike a deadly blow at its very 
existence. 

One of the principal objections made by demagogues to 
the further coinage of silver is, that it would, as they claim, 
drive all the gold away from us and convert the country 
into a depository for all the silver of the world, and reduce 
us to a single silver standard. This is simply an assertion 
and not an argument, and material cannot be found upon 
which to base an argument in its favor. 

Facts and figures concerning the movements of gold, in 
the past and present, show conclusively that in 1877, just 
before the present coinage act was passed, there was not 
more than 1200,000,000 of coin in the country all told. 
It 1887 we had in gold coin and bullion alone about 
1660,000,000. 

The importation of gold during 1877 was 143,738,595, 
and the total exports for the same year were 156,054,737, or 
an excess of exports over imports of ^12,332,142. BetAveen 
1873, the year that silver was demonetized, and 1878, when 
its coinage was restored, the exports of gold exceeded the 
imports $103,754,210, making an average of $20,625,000 
per annum. Thus we see where the gold was being dumped 
prior to the passage of the silver coinage act. 

But from the passage of the silver bill in 1878 to 1885, 
the imports of gold exceeded the exports over $200,856,000, 
an average excess of imports over exports of more than 
$33,000,000 per annum, which, together Avith over $22,- 
500,000 accumulated annually from other sources, makes an 
annual increase of gold coin and bullion of about $60,000,- 
000 per annum from the passage of the silver bill in 1878, 
to 1885. Thus we see where tlie gold was dumped after the 



THE SILVER QUESTION. 271 

passage of the silver coinage act. With what reason, then, 
can it be said that silver has driven or will drive gold from 
the country. 

During the period between 1879 and 1885 the imports of 
silver were $88,397,186, and the exports of silver during 
the same period were $151,426,861, according to the reports 
of the director of the mint, showing that the exports of 
silver exceeded the imports during those seven years 
$63,029,675. It would, therefore, seem that it could be 
argued much more plausibly that the continuation of the 
free coinage of gold will drive all the silver from our - 
shores. 

It is claimed that, as Germany demonetized silver in 
1871, and the Scandinavian states did the same thing in 
1876, and the states belonging to the Latin Union limited 
its coinage, we should cease its coinage, at least for a 
time, which means forever by its advocates. It seems very 
difficult, indeed, to discover what effect the conduct of 
certain nations in Europe toward silver should have upon 
our conduct in the management of our financial affairs. It 
has been asserted by certain wise statesmen that there is 
danger that all the silver contained in those countries will 
find its way across the Atlantic and overwhelm us with all 
sorts of misery and degradation. In the first place, their 
silver would not constitute money with us, any more than a 
nugget of gold, a chunk of silver or the trade dollar, for it 
is not a tender here for the payment of debts. And in the 
second place, as already shown, the coinage of silver at 
home has had a tendency to increase our stock of gold, if it 
has had any influence upon gold at all. 

It will not be out of place here to take a glance at the 
effect the single gold standard has had upon those countries 
where it exists. 

The double standard exists in France, and, in 1871, she 
was stripped of all her gold to satisfy the demands made 
against her by Germany. France has a population not more 



^n THE SILVER QUESTIOI^. 

than two-thirds that of the United States, and a territoi*y 
not as large as that of Texas, and still, after paying the 
heavy German indemnity in 1871, besides her own war ex- 
penses, there was, in December, 1885, in the Bank of France, 
and in circulation among the people, $853,475,000 in gold, 
and $541,945,00t) in silver, making in all the sum of II,- 
395,420,000 in coin. 

From these figures it appears that the double standard 
has not been an injury but a great benefit to France, for, 
while she has a larger amount of silver than any nation in 
Europe or America, she has a larger stock of gold than any 
other nation in the world, and we, under the operation of 
the despised silver coinage act, succeeded in accumulating 
more gold coin than any other nation in the world except 
France. England, Germany, and the Scandinavian states, 
all single gold standard countries, are immediately adjacent 
to France, but during the past fourteen years France has 
gained more gold than all the countries above mentioned. 
France being in such close proximity to the single gold 
standard countries, why is it that all the gold did not go to 
those countries, and all the silver to France and the United 
States ? Such would have been the case had there been 
any foundation to the theory advanced by the agents of the 
bankers, brokers and bondholders in Europe and the United 
States. 

The stock of coin alone in France amounts to over 138 
per capita, and her industrial and commercial prosperity is 
now, and has been during the past fourteen years far 
greater than that of any other country in Europe. The 
stock of coin in Germany is only 112 per capita, and that 
of Great Britain and Ireland 118 per capita. In Germany, 
England and Ireland business industries have been, for this 
reason, greatly depressed for years. It appears clear, then, 
that the single gold standard is a fallacy of the most 
glaring character. 

The fact that some European nations have adopted a 



th:^ silver question. 273 

single standard, and others have limited the coinage of 
silver, is no reason why we should not place the coinage of 
silver upon an equal footing with gold. Those nations 
constitute but a small portion of the world where metal 
money is used. Russia and Austria are silver standard 
countries. Holland and Belgium are double standard 
countries. Nearly or quite all the Asiatic nations are 
silver standard countries. The South American nations 
are silver standard countries. In fact, more than three- 
fourths of the earth^s surface is silver standard territory. 

The idea that a single gold standard should be established 
with us is an English idea, aped by Wall street, and sup- 
ported in their interest by Eepublican leaders and officials. 
Is England to dictate to us what we must do in the man- 
agement of our financial affairs ? When has England ever 
shown any serious regard for our prosperity and well being ? 
Xothing pleases the Lion better than to see the United 
States aping his way in such a manner as to give him a 
financial advantage over us. England rejoices to see silver 
bullion fall in the market, for she knows that the cheaper 
silver bullion is, the more her gold coin is worth. While 
the gold standard exists in England, she has a silver 
standard in India, and she buys silver bullion as cheap as 
she can in London, coins it into money and exports it to 
India, where silver coin is a legal tender, and will purchase 
as much, dollar for dollar, as gold coin. People generally 
suppose that, as the gold standard prevails in England, they 
coin no silver there. This is a mistake. They coin mil- 
lions every year out of bullion bought in the cheapest mar- 
kets. This coin is not a legal tender in England, but is in 
India, to which country from 150,000,000 to $75,000,000 are 
shipped each year, where it is worth as much as gold, dollar 
for dollar. They play that nice little game over there be- 
cause they have the power to make it work, and it is a 
great pity that our wise Republican statesmen could not 

J8 



M THE SlLVEit QUESTIOi^. 

liave succeeded in establishing the single gold standard pol- 
icy for the benefit of English nobility. 

McKinley^ John Sherman and other anti-silver men 
assert that a free coinage of silver would enable the silver 
bullion producers of the world to bring their bullion here 
and have the same coined into money, and thereby enable 
the foreign producers of silver to participate in the profits 
which they claim would accrue to them in conseouence of 
the cheapness of silver bullion. 

In this connection anti-silver coinage men do not take 
into consideration the fact that most countries are silver 
standard countries, and that a double standard is main- 
tained in man}^ others. The provinces of England are 
either silver standard countries or maintain a double stand- 
ard. The greatest of all her provinces are the Indies, 
where silver is the standard. Therefore London, the great- 
est metropolis of the world, has a desire to deal largely in 
silver bullion, for she controls the trade of all her colonies, 
and endeavors to furnish all the silver bullion to such 
colonies as she can obtain in the London market at the 
lowest possible prices. Of late years large quantities of 
silver bullion produced in the United States have been shipped 
to England at low prices for the benefit of English bullion 
speculators, for the reason that we produced more than we 
could consume without a free coinage of that metal in 
this country — a country which needs a greater money cir- 
culation than any other country on the face of the earth. 
Speculators in silver bullion in the London market do not 
desire to purchase a cheap bullion for the purpose of 
shipping the same to the United States to be coined into 
American dollars, nor for the purpose of lugging our gold 
coin back across the ocean after exchanging their silver 
therefor. Their silver bullion, whatever they can obtain, 
is worth far more to them in their trade with India, to 
which place it is being continually shipped, where they know 
that an amount of bullion v^qual to that contained in a 



THE SILVER QUESflOn. 275 

dollar containing less grains of silver than ours^ will pur- 
chase one hundred cents in gold, or that many cents' worth 
of any of the products or commodities which it is desirable 
to exchange the same for. During the past twelve years, a 
period during which the anti-silver coinage men claim that 
silver bullion has been so cheap, no bullion has been shi^Dped 
from England or elsewhere to this country for the purpose 
of being coined into money. If there had been any profit 
in it, the producers or speculators in silver bullion 
would have taken advantage of the opportunity ; but 
England, a gold standard country, and a country which 
would make as big a fool of any and all countries upon 
the silver question as possible, is the only gi-eat bullion 
purchasing country by way of speculation, Should we 
provide for a free coinage of silver no silver bullion 
would be shipped to England from this country, and 
silver would rise to a proper standard price in the market ; 
and as foreign producers have not been able to bring 
their bullion here for the purpose of having the same 
coined when silver bullion was so low in the market, the 
necessary increase in the price of silver bullion would 
render it absolutely impossible for foreign producers or 
speculators in bullion to bring the same here to be coined. 
Transportation is expensive, and the sharks of London, the 
greatest speculators in bullion, have a better market for 
their silver in India than anywhere else, whether the price 
of bullion in the market runs high or low. Cut off the 
shipments of silver bullion from the United States to 
England, and one half the usual supply to English markets 
would be gone, the price of silver bullion would advance to 
a proper standard in the markets of the world, and the 
result would be a strong tendency to cause those nations, 
which. VD recent years, have aped English ways and ideas, 
W -aemonetizing silver, to re-monetize the same, and thus 
place it upon that roll of honor where it belongs. 

The enemies of silver have declared that its coinage 



276 THE SILVEB QUESTION. 

should cease, for the reason that they do not want it, and 
that it could not be placed in circulation. This objection 
was only made for the effect it would have upon the credu- 
lous followers of political demagogues, for those who made 
the assertion know full well that the people demand the 
silver, and that the ways by which it can be got into circu- 
lation are many, as a few facts and figures will show. 

The ordinary revenues of the government, as ascertained 
from the report of the secretary in 1885, were $323,690,- 
706.38, and the ordinary expenditures for the same year 
were 1305,880,970.54. Thus it appears that the govern- 
ment was paying out neEirly $1,000,000 per day to the cred- 
itors of the government. Among those expenses were in 
the vicinity of $5,000,000 per month for navy purposes, 
$5,000,000 for army purposes, interest on the public debt 
$4,000,000, and other miscellaneous expenses covering the 
balance. All those expenses were payable in gold or silver 
coin, or silver certificates, and in 1885 only about 15 per 
cent, of the revenue collected was received in silver coin 
and certificates. 

ISTow how ridiculous it does seem that so small an amount 
of silver could not have been paid out for government expen- 
ses ! Bondholders may not desire to take silver, or silver 
certificates, for interest on their bonds, but they have no 
more right to refuse them than the secretary of the treas- 
ury has to pay them in some other kind of money, contrary 
to law. Aside from the bondholders, the government dis- 
burses over $25,000,000 per month to pay soldiers, sailors, 
contractors, Indians, pensioners, clerks, laborers and others, 
none of whom would ever think of refusing silver coin or 
certificates for their pay. And it is plain that if the secre- 
tary causes to be paid one-seventh of the ordinary expenses 
of the government in silver and silver certificates, there would 
not remain a dollar of silver coin improperly on deposit in 
the treasury. 

Of course a certain amount of silver coin should remain 



The silveb question. 'in 

proi^erly in the treasury, under a respectable law, for the 
redemption of the same amount of silver certificates. 
Those dollars could not be paid out for any other purpose, 
any more than the $100,000,000 of coin reserve held as a 
basis of the government notes now outstanding. The 
entire amount of silver coined, however great, might properly 
remain stored in the vaults of the treasury, while its repre- 
sentative, the certificate, would circulate among the people. 
This was what was intended when the Bland silver bill was 
passed, knowing that many people had rather handle paper 
money than coin. This every president and every secretary 
of the treasury since 1878 has understood perfectly well. 
The object of resumption was that the people might have, 
and handle, a sound paper currency, which many prefer to 
coin of any kind. A paper currency, based upon a coin 
reserve held in safe hands, is said to be the best currency 
known. Then why not coin silver, and base the certificates 
thereon ? The government need not be out a cent at any 
time, for no bullion owner who has labored to procure the 
metal from the earth, will object to receiving the silver cer- 
tificates for his bullion. 

But the moneyed power does not desire a paper cur- 
rency of any sort issued by the government, no matter upon 
what it may be based. Its adherents plainly see that if the 
government ever does adopt the proper policy, the country 
will be supplied with a sufficient amount of coin, and paper 
currency equally as good, and their power to corner the gov- 
ernment and carry on their nefarious speculations at the 
expense of the laboring and industrial classes would come 
to an end. All kinds of money coined and issued by the 
government direct, except gold, is unsjDaringly denounced 
by them. The only money which must exist, according to 
the proclamations and dictations of the moneyed power, is 
gold and national bank notes, to be shoved out and with- 
drawn at the pleasure of the banks, and thus the only bar- 



27B th:e silver question. 

riers which stand between the people and rapacious 
cormorants are to be surrendered and removed. 

They claim that silver coin is not equal to gold coin^ 
dollar for dollar. The assertion is false. Since 1878 silver, 
when called upon for service^ has done and performed 
whatever gold could do or perform^ whether in paying cus- 
toms duties, expenses of government or purchasing the 
necessaries of life. A silver dollar will purchase a gold 
dollar, and it can be successfully demonstrated that silver 
coin is more than equivalent to gold coin, for the treasurer, 
in his report for 1885, said : 

The issue of silver certificates by treasury officers in the South and West 
for gold coin deposited with the assistant treasurer at New York under depart- 
ment circular of September 18th, 1880, was discontinued in January last. 
The amount which had been issued in that manner to the date named was 
$80,730,500. 

This is conclusive evidence that silver certificates are 
preferred to gold by business men and the people generally. 
Here is an instance where the holders of gold coin volun- 
tarily exchanged their coin for silver certificates, knowing 
that the certificates received therefor were the representa- 
tives of silver, and could only be redeemed with silver coin. 
And yet bankers and bondholders denounce the silver dol- 
lar as cheap and dishonest. This denunciation of silver is 
not for the reason stated by them, for they know that it is 
false, but for the reason that they demand a perpetual right 
to furnish all the paper currency which is to circulate, and 
a perpetual right to hold bonds, no matter Avhat the conse- 
quences may be. And plainly seeing, as they do, that the 
practice of allowing a free exchange of gold for silver cer- 
tificates was confirming the popularity of silver, and the 
practicability of its coinage, and was operating directly 
opposite to the efforts that they had long been making to 
destroy silver, their closely allied power was brought scien- 
tifically to bear upon the treasury department to put a stop 
to any further exchange of gold for silver certificates. 
, The complaint that the silver dollar is dishonest comes 




iiitilt ft !■ 1 1*. Wi^*.*. • '. "'A 




d 



^iftt".*'* ■'■•''-••••-• 



THE SILVER QUESTION 281 

with very poor grace from a banker or bondholder. It is the 
dollar of the contract made and entered into at the special 
request of the bondholders in 1870 and 1871, which greatly 
increased their rights as compared to what they were 
before, and it cannot be anything but honest to pay a debt 
with the kind of money which the creditor agreed to take. 
The contract made with the holder of the bonds was that 
they would receive coin of the standard value of the United 
States, consisting of gold or silver, for both principal and 
interest. 

Those most interested in the destruction of silver 
stealthily approached the friends of government money and 
requested a temporary suspension of the coinage of silver 
under the Bland act, upon the pretense that some regula- 
tion should be made w^ith foreign nations in regard to the 
size of the coin. They Avere serpents in human form. They 
knew that no arrangement could be made with foreign 
nations regulating the coin, and they only desired a sus- 
pension which, once accomjDlished, would have instituted a 
struggle to have reinstated it equal to that which took 
place between 1873 and 1878 for the remonetization of 
silver, and which reinstatement would probably have had 
to be done over the veto of a Republican j^i'esident, 
were one so fortunate as to have been occupying the White 
House. 

Those who have been endeavoring, during the past fifteen 
years, to dishonor and discredit silver, and drive the bullion 
to a London market for the benefit of English capitalists in 
their trade with India, have constantly asserted that the 
bullion in the silver dollar is not worth as much as the 
bullion in the gold dollar. This may be true at times, but 
past history shows that the gold dollar, as bullion, was, for 
the century prior to 1874, worth less than the silver 
dollar as bullion. But the real question is, when discussing 
the merits of the two metals, which of the two is the most 
inflexible as a standard of value for coin money. There 



282 THE SILVER QUESTION. 

might have been a greater difference between the price of j 
gold and silver bullion between 1876 and 1880^ than usual, " 
but it is important to inquire whether this difference was 
caused by the depreciation of silver, and the appreciation 
of gold, or whether the difference was caused entirely byj 
the depreciation of silver, or entirely by the appreciation oi 
gold. 

If silver has not depreciated some during the past fifteen 
years, it may be considered absolutely invincible. It was 
demonetized in Germany, in the Scandinavian states, and in 
the United States. Had gold, instead of silver, during the 
same time been tradaced, maligned and misrepresented, as 
silver has been, there might have been a greater difference 
in the market price of the two metals in the opposite 
direction. 

Between 1792 and 1878 the metal in the silver dollar was 
worth more, as bullion, than the metal in the gold dollar. 
Between 1834 and 1873 the silver dollar, as bullion, was 
worth from .34 to 5.22 per cent, more than the bullion in ^ 
the gold dollar. In 1852 the silver dollar, as bullion, was 
worth 4.26 per cent, more than the metal in the gold dollar, 
and in 1873, when silver was demonetized, the silver dollar 
was worth 2.67 per cent, more than the gold dollar, as 
bullion, and that was advanced then as a reason why silver 
should be demonetized. Then silver was worth too much ; 
now they claim that it is worth too little. 

But they advanced no arguments to show that the 
difference in the market price of the two metals was caused 
alone by the flexibility of silver. The fact is, silver has 
been for centuries the most uniform, steady, and inflexible 
of the two metals ; and the difference in the bullion price 
of the two metals has been principally caused by the rise 
and fall of gold btillion, as compared to all other stable 
articles. To prove this, we have only to compare its 
average market price with the market price of the principal 
^araestic ^^rticles during a long period in the past, *^'^§uch ^s 



THE SILVER QUESTION. 283 

Scotch pig iron, coal, copper, tin, wheat, flour, beef, sugar 
and saltpeter/^ There has been a decline in the value of 
the above named articles in the London market during 
the i^ast twelve years of about 20 per cent., and silver 
bullion has declined in the same ratio. In other words, 
gold is the only article which rose 20 per cent, higher 
than the balance. This shows that silver bullion and the 
"general average prices have remained nearly the same, while 
gold bullion advanced in value 20 per cent. This advance 
in the price of gold has taken place without any deprecia- 
tion of silver bullion. 

England, since she adopted the single gold standard, has 
been troubled with the change of the rate of interest forty 
times to one previous to that time. It is said, on good 
authority, that the rate of interest has been changed by the 
.Bank of England since 1847, two hundred and twenty- three 
times, fluctuating between 2^ and 10 per cent. This also 
shows that the single gold standard is far more unsafe and 
unsteady than the double standard. 

France, with not more than two-thirds as many people as 
there are in the United States, and a territory less than that 
of Texas, circulates more than $100,000,000 of silver, and, 
surrounded by single gold standard countries, her silver is 
at par with gold, while, at the same time, she is con- 
stantly increasing her stock of gold by drawing it from 
single standard countries, and that, too, while her silver 
coin, when reduced to dollars, contains less silver than our 
own. The French government stands by, sustains and up- 
holds its silver, and were our government officials to lend 
their timely aid in good faith, in upholding silver in this 
country, we could circulate far more silver than France, 
with gold in the same proportion. 

But silver has powerful enemies. All the officers of the 
treasury department since 1868 ; all the power of capitalists 
holding bonded indebtedness, national, state, municipal, 
and corporation, and over three thousand national banks. 



284 THE SILVER QUESTION. 

assisted by the leading bankers and brokers of England, 
Germany, and some other nations, are, and have been the 
deadly enemies of silver, and insist upon its destruction as 
money. In view of this it is necessary for the masses to be 
on guard at all times in order that these vipers in human 
shape may be kept at bay, and foiled in their evil work. 

SPEECHES DELIVERED Ilf THE HOUSE MARCH 22, 1882, 
UPOI!?' THE QUESTIOIT OF FREE COIN"AGE. 

Mr. Williams, of Massachusetts. In opening the debate 
in support of the minority report of the Committee on Coin- 
agCj Weights, and Measures, I trust that I shall truly repre- 
sent the people of this country who are in accordance with 
me in my views upon this great question. I trust that I shall 
be able to represent, not only the minority of the minority 
of the Committee of Coinage, Weights, and Measures, but 
the majority as well. 

I am acting in behalf of the minority of the committee, 
and I am acting in behalf of the cause I represent, which, 
so far as I know, knows no party, but is a mere question of 
patriotism upon both sides. The man who now draws the 
party line upon the merits of this question does not repre- 
sent his cause. He represents himself or his party, but he 
does not represent the true interests of the great American 
Commonwealth. 

Mr. Speaker, I recognize the fact that in opening the 
debate upon this side of the question, I am addressing a peo- 
ple which has already known the evils of depreciated money. 
Those evils were forced upon the people in time of national 
trouble and peril, and at the first breathing moment after 
our money had become depreciated, it became the will and 
effort of the American people to rescue its credit in the 
markets of the world, to rescue its own people from the 
evils of depreciated money, and it deliberately undertook to 
appreciate its standard of value. 

It undertook to lift the value of the dollar up to the value 




HON. A. H. COLQUITT. 



THE SILVER QUESTION. 287 

of the best dollar in the world. I recall that I represent 
now a party, or, if you please, I speak out of a party, which, 
during the period of resumption, in its platforms and in leg- 
islation never faltered in its determination to assist in 
securing the resumption of specie payment. 

Mr. Simpson. What party was that ? 

Mr. Williams, of Massachusetts. That was the Democratic 
party. 

Mr. Simpson. I simply wanted to know. 

Mr. AYilliams, of Massachusetts. Now, Mr. Speaker, poli- 
tics should not be allowed in the discussion of this question at 
this time, and I make no distinction of party, perhaps, when I 
say that I am aware that the judgment of individual mem- 
bers upon this question may have been forestalled by local 
action. Many men upon this floor feel obliged to vote for 
the free coinage of silver, though they do not believe in it, 
because their constituencies have instructed them. 

I have but one word to say upon that point, and it is this : 
That this^is a national question ; that considerations which 
now weigh here in the judgment of men do not weigh in 
local conventions and local communities ; that in different 
sections feelings may prevail which ought not to influence 
men here in this national assemblage. We all know that in 
local meetings sectional feelings may be expressed, and that 
even measures which are admitted to be nationally disas- 
trous may be assented to because of the feelings of particu- 
lar localities. But, Mr. Speaker, when men come here and 
take into their hands the destiny of the monetary system of 
this greatest nation of the world, I submit that they must, in 
their judgments, go beyond the narrow purlieus of their 
Congressional districts and be accountable to the people of 
this country, North, South, East and West, alone. 

The fundamental error, it seems to me, with which the 
free-coinage advocates start out is, that quantity of money 
is essentially more important than quality of money, and 
that money itself is of prime importance as compared with 



288 THE SILVER QUESTION. 

credit. These errors are one and the same in substance. 
Never was a better illustration given of the true inwardness 
of the question of the appreciated,, the overvalued standard, , 
if you please, than upon the floor of this House only a day! 
or two ago from the lips of the gentleman from Arizona.] 
The remarks of that gentleman [Mr. Smith, of Arizona]] 
and his efforts upon this floor are in themselves a debat( 
upon this question. 

The gentleman brought in a bill for the refunding of thej 
debt of Arizona, and asked to have inserted in it a provision! 
that the bonds and their interest should be paid in gold.] 
Objection was made by the gentleman from Georgia [Mr.] 
Livingston] that that would establish a precedent, and th( 
gentleman from Arizona answered, "I have tried to floal 
this debt at a reasonable rate of interest, but I am satisfie( 
that without that provision in the bill it cannot be dom 
at less than from 7 to 10 per cent. With this provisioi 
I believe the bonds can be floated at 5 per cent." Am 
when the gentleman from Georgia insisted that this wouh 
be a national precedent which he did not care to indorse, 
the gentleman from Arizona responded, " It is not a ques- 
tion of indorsement ; it is a question of floating our bonds 
at the cheajDest interest we can get. It is a question of sav- 
ing the people of my Territory $75,000 a year in interest. 

Mr. Smith, of Arizona. Will the gentleman permit me 
to interrupt him there ? 

Mr. Williams. I will yield for a question ; not for an 
explanation. 

Mr. Smith, of Arizona. All right. I only wanted to 
explain, but I will ask a question. 

Mr. Williams. My time is limited. 

Mr. Smith, of Arizona. I will not detain the gentleman 
long. My question is this : Did not the condition which 
forced that expression from me result from the legislation 
enacted against silver? [Cries of "That's it!" "Now 
y(Du\e got it ! "] 



THE SILVER QUESTION. 289 

Mr. Williams. Mr. Speaker, when I answer that ques- 
tion I explain this whole silver question. I am debating 
the very question which the gentleman asks. But let me 
ask the gentleman how it is that this tyrant, the creditor, 
is willing to lend the gentleman from Arizona his money, 
if he can be secure in payment of his ^^rincipal and interest, 
at 2 per cent, less a year than he would lend it if he had to 
take the risk of a JEluctuating and uncertain standard ? 

Mr. Smith, of Arizona. Because they have made that 
condition of difference by the legislation itself. 

Mr. Williams. They have made the difference ! '' They! '* 
Think you, Mr. Speaker, that the capital of this country is 
an organized conspiracy ? 

Mr. Livingston. That is just what it is. 

Mr. Williams, of Massachusetts. '"''They" — who are 
"they V The gentleman from Arizona has every dollar of 
the world at his disposal if he has satisfactory security to 
give, and when he goes to any owner of money and says to 
him, '' I want this loan," the owner of that money answers 
him : " Sir, the money is mine. Secure me a standard of 
payment and I will let you have it at 2 per cent, less a year 
than I can possibly accept if I am to take the risk of having 
my money returned to me at a depreciation of 30 or 40 per 
cent." 

Mr. Speaker, that is the fundamental proposition with 
which I would approach the West and the South. Think 
you, gentlemen, that by legislation you can turn the chan- 
nels of credit into your sections ? Never. You turn it 
away every time you do anything to imperil the standard of 
payment. The creditor has a right, in law and in morals, 
to have his money returned to him, and when you imperil 
the standard of his payment you simply give him notice 
that he shall not loan you money. 

Mr. Livingston. Lord knows we do not want the stand- 
ard in the hands of an enemy any longer. We will take 
our chances on it. 



290 THE SILVER QUESTION. 

Mr. Williams, of Massachusetts. Now, Mr. Speaker, I 
have been diverted by the question of the gentleman from 
Arizona from the line of my argument. This objection of 
the " appreciating standard " is one which is much over- 
estimated. I will not pretend to decide whether gold has 
appreciated in value or not. There are differences of 
opinion upon that question. But the fact that prices have 
fallen is not, I respectfully submit, any proof that gold has 
risen. These gentlemen leave out of consideration the 
tremendous expansion of industry in the last quarter or 
half century. They leave out the facilities of exchange — 
the bank, the clearing-house, the telegraph, the postal 
order ; they leave out the opening up of enormous territory 
and the increase of population ; and they leave out labor- 
saving machinery and other inventions of the time when 
they consider the problem of the fall in prices. Admitting 
the claim, the question comes whether an appreciating 
standard is not better than a fluctuating standard. An 
appreciating standard is certainly better than a constantly 
falling standard — better for the world. 

Mr. Speaker, there are two fundamental arguments on 
the other side — arguments which have the most effect 
in the minds of men. The first is that we had the free 
coinage of silver before 1873, and that there can be no 
danger now in restoring a law which operated without loss 
to this country. That is one of the arguments. In the 
minority report I have attempted to point out that the 
conditions since that time have absolutely changed ; the 
monetary conditions of the world have entirely changed, 
and they are beyond our control. 

The gentleman from Missouri asks, " Are we to have our 
monetary system regulated by the rest of the world ? " I 
answer him that the monetary system of commerce is the 
affair of the world, and that we cannot settle it alone ; that 
when he undertakes to do it tlie world will have its "own 
sweet will " with his American system, and we shall be 



THE SILVER QUESTION. 291 

thrown out of the commercial and monetary problems of 
the world. 

The gentleman has adverted to an inconsistency in the 
minority report. I would like to point out to him that the 
inconsistency is his fault, not mine. He says that with one 
breath I say we are going on to a silver standard and a 
depreciated currency, and with the next breath I say that 
silver is going to pour in here to be exchanged for gold. I 
ask the gentleman to take his stand, and then I will take 
mine. I ask him to tell me which of those things will result 
— to tell me whether, in his judgment, silver is to remain 
exchangeable for gold at the ratio of 16 to 1, or whether sil- 
ver is to go down to its market value, and when he will take 
his stand on that, I can discuss the question without the 
alternatives which I was obliged to put into that report. 

I take it, Mr. Speaker, that the recent thought upon the 
free-coinage side of this question is in favor of the lapsing of 
our currency system into the silver standard. I think it 
may now be taken as practically admitted that the silver 
standard is what we are coming to under this legislation ; 
that it is not probable, or even possible, that gold should 
remain in the currency system at a par with silver at the 
ratio fixed by law. Now, what is the silver standard, and 
what does it mean ? When we cut oif gold and drive it to 
a premium, where will silver go ? It will go to a discount. 
The premium upon gold is the discount upon silver ; and 
how is that discount to be measured ? 

When the gentleman asks me whether we are to regulate 
our monetary system by the will of the rest of the world, I 
answer him that the rest of the world will fix the deprecia- 
tion upon silver according to the markets of the world, and 
that our standard will then be 70 cents for $1 in very truth. 
That will be the truth. That, Mr. Speaker, is repudiation ; 
that is the scaling down of debts ; that is the spectacle of 
this country going into a dishonest settlement of every debt 
contracted upon our present gold basis. Now, it is because 



292 THE SILVER QUESTION. 

the scaling of debts is dishonest and unjust that I believe 
the people of this country will never listen to this proposi- 
tion. Scaling of debts ! Whom does it benefit ? Very- 
few^ very few. Out of our whole population there may be 
some who will gain by it ; there may be some fixed debts 
payable in honor upon the standard of the time when they 
were contracted that will be liquidated upon this dishonest 
standard. 

The people who will lose by this depreciation are mainly 
the industrial classes of this country. I assert, Mr. S23eaker, 
that the wealth of this country which is loaned is, in great 
part, the wealth belonging to the industrial classes of this 
country. If any gentleman here is a lawyer from the 
Northeast, I beg to compare experiences with him ; I ask 
him who they are who have placed their money in Western 
mortgages ; whether the great invested trust estates of Bos- 
ton are put into Western mortgages ? 

No, sir ; the people who have loaned money from the 
East to the West are comparatively poor people, the 
people of small earnings who wish to speculate, perhaps, 
somewhat to get large rates of interest. The people who 
have invested in Western mortgages are, I believe, seven 
out of ten — people who would be seriously injured in their 
incomes and in their living by the scaling of the Western 
mortgages from $1 to 70 cents. This is not a question 
between wealth and poverty ; it is a question between hon- 
orable industry in one section and honorable industry in 
the other. 

I wish to point out in very few words what silver money 
on the continent of Europe threatens our monetary system 
in case of free coinage. I would point out the fact that 
there is now in Germany $100,000,000 in old thalers, which 
the German Government did not sell in 1879 because the 
price of silver went down, and it is perfectly well known 
that Germany would like to melt all of that hundred mill- 
ions and sell it where it can find a market. I would call 



THE SILVER QUESTION. 293 

attention to tlie fact that Eoumania has recently melted five 
millions of silver coin and sold it in the market at a sacrifice 
of 25 per cent, to get gold. 

I would call attention further to the fact that Austria- 
Hungary is now proposing, and has made it public, to melt up 
$30,000,000 out of its total of eighty millions of silver stock 
and sell it in the market as bullion in order to secure gold. 
I would point out to you that Italy has about sixty millions 
of silver 5-franc pieces in the Bank of France, which it 
would like to sell for gold ; that Belgium has between sixty 
and seventy millions of dollars in 5-franc pieces in circula- 
tion in France, which the press of Belgium has already 
claimed should be sold as bullion in order that Belgium 
may get on the gold standard. About $500,000,000 worth 
of silver are ready for the market out of the coin systems of 
Europe. 

Mr. Speaker, are we ready to have that 8500,000,000 sent 
over here to be exchanged for the gold which is in our 
Treasury, which is circulating among the people, and which 
measures the daily business of this vast country ? What 
will be the result ? Does anyone need to be told ? One of 
two things must result. Either this government must 
issue bonds to buy gold to exchange for that silver or our 
silver dollar will go down, and it will be no object for them 
to send their silver over here, because the silver dollar of 
this country has descended to its market value. 

But, Mr. Speaker, there is a remedy which I shall pre- 
sent, unless the gentleman who succeeds me from the com- 
mittee wishes to present it, and that is a bill providing that 
the President of the United States shall seek an inter- 
national conference upon this question. That is the true 
solution of the question. I agree, sir, that it is unfortunate 
that gold has become the standard coin of Europe. I agree 
that this country should do everything in its power to 
secure silver again in its proper place in the currency 
systems of the world. 



294 TBE SILVER QUESTION. 

I will not yield even to the gentleman from Missouri 
himself in the desire to accomplish this great result. I 
believe that it is necessary, just as the gentleman does. 
But I do not believe that because we see the evil, which is 
the world's evil, this country should attempt to do the 
world's work alone and the people of this country be 
inflicted with all the disastrous results which must flow 
from it under such circumstances. The nations of the 
world should come together. I believe that they are ready 
to come together on this great question. 

I believe that the movement of Austria-Hungary at the 
present time, of Italy and Belgium, as well as other European 
nations, to adopt the gold standard, can be averted if we 
meet them and invite them to join with us in changing the 
world's system, so far as in them lies. If gold is depreciat- 
ing the whole world is suffering from it and not the United 
States alone. 

Why, Mr. Speaker, for this nation to undertake to stem 
the tide of commerce of the world would be as unreason- 
able as it would be if we saw the mercury rising in the ther- 
mometer and, wishing to stop the heat, should get an 
elephant to tread on the bulb in order to lower the temper- 
ature. This proposition is in the last degree absurd, that 
because the evil exists throughout the world we should at- 
tempt single-handed to do the business of the world and to 
remedy it. 

I now offer, Mr. Speaker, the bill to which I have refer- 
red, but will waive the reading of it at the present to save 
time. I offer it as a substitute for the pending bill. 

The Speaker pro tempore. It will be considered as pend- 
ing. 

The proposed substitute is as follows : Strike out all after 
the enacting clause and insert : 

That the President is authorized to invite the governments of such coun- 
tries as he may deem advisable to join the United States in a conference to 
he held at a time and place agreed upon, such confcreuce to be called with a 
view of securing a permanence in the relative value of gold and silver, at a 



THE SILVER QUESTION. 295 

common coinage ratio to be mutually agreed upon, through, international 
agreements providing for the enlarged monetary use of silver and for giving 
to that metal equal mintage rights with gold. 

Sec. 2. That the President shall, by and with the advice of the Senate, 
appoint three commissioners, who shall attend such conference on behalf of 
the United States, and shall report the doings thereof to the President, who 
shall transmit the same to Congress. Said commissioners shall receive the 
simi of $5,000 each and their reasonable expenses, including the compensation 
of a secretary and such other assistance as may be necessary, to bo approved 
by the Secretary of State. 

Mr. Williams, of Massachusetts. I now yield to the 
gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Harter]. 

Mr. Harter. Mr. Speaker, I call the House to witness 
that in the interest of party harmony, I have, so far as per- 
sonal effort is concerned, done all I could to postpone the 
consideration of this silver bill, believing that by another 
session public opinion and common sense would prevail to 
such an extent as to render its passage impossible and its 
prompt defeat inevitable. These efforts have been unavail- 
ing, and the responsibility for its present untimely discus- 
sion rests upon other shoulders. For one, I am glad to 
meet the issue, now that it is before us, happy to confront 
a superstition with experience, and a fallacy with the ever- 
lasting truth. 

To do no injustice to the author of the present bill 
(known, as it now is, as the Bland bill), I took occasion last 
Thursday to present to him what it seems to me are the 
claims he makes for his measure. 

These are, as he then agreed : 

First. That it would greatly increase the circulating 
money of the country. 

Second. That its becoming a law would not disturb the 
present circulation of gold, silver and paper, side by side. 

Third. That the measure when put into active operation 
would not draw from all parts of the world, including the 
United States, a larger sum in silver per annum to our 
mints, or into our treasury, than seventy-five millions. 



296 THE SILVEB QUESTION. 

Fourth. That it would correct a great crime, namely, the 
demonetization of silver. 

In what I have to say on the question, I shall at conven- 
ient points endeavor to dissect and answer the claims made 
by the author of the bill, and if possible, prove beyond ques- 
tion that its passage would result in great disappointment to 
its friends, bring untold injury to the whole people, and 
work irrevocable harm to all the great business, financial 
and industrial interests of the country. • 

QUALITY, KOT QUANTITY OF MOl^EY. 

Money is to the commerce and the internal trade of a 
nation precisely what scales are to the grocer and the yard- 
stick is to the merchant. When used as money it is not 
wealth, but rather a sum drawn from the wealth of the 
country and rendered for the time being non-productive. 
You do not measure the wealth of the merchant by the 
number of yardsticks he owns, but by the goods upon his 
counters and shelves, and the accounts and quick assets 
under his control. It is, however, important that the 
yardstick he uses should have thirty-six inches in it, and 
be the same length, all the year round, so that it may meas- 
ure accurately when he buys and when he sells. 

This is equally true of money. A nation which has too 
much money uses it at a loss to itself, and it is a mark of 
limited commercial instinct and moderate business capacity. 
The having it in the treasury at Washington and in the 
mints at Philadelphia, New Orleans and San Francisco, 
$382,000,000, principally in the shape of silver bullion, 
which is of no use to anybody, and the value of which is 
steadily falling, is little short of a crime when we reflect 
that but for its compulsory purchase by the government, it 
would have been sold or exchanged for productive property, 
and employed in creating wealth. The periods of greatest 
prosperity in the history of any nation were not those 
when the volume of money was greatest, but when its 



THE SILVER QUESTION. 297 

value was steadiest. In fact, like the yardstick, the measur- 
ing quality of money is its greatest function everywhere and 
at all times. 

In highly enlightened nations in which the commercial 
sense has been greatly developed, actual money, gold and 
silver, are but little used. In Great Britain, not over 2 per 
cent, of the business is done with money, and in New York 
City, not over 1 per cent., and in the country at large not 
over 8 per cent. While, therefore, money as an agent of 
exchange is used in only, let us say, eight transactions out 
of every one hundred, yet as a measure of value it is used in 
all of them. It follows then that steadiness of value in 
money is to our people over eleven times as important as 
that its volume should be great. Stability in value, fixity 
in its measuring qualities, are the all-important things to us, 
and it is just these which this proposed Bland legislation 
will destroy. 

Money represents value, and becomes the essence of all 
instant, concurrent, present business transactions, but its 
great importance as a measure is seen most in deferred con- 
tracts, that is, business agreements which are to be fulfilled 
in the future. The actual value of money is much less im- 
portant in a cash transaction than when the parties to it 
agree that its consummation shall not take place for years. 
In a case, for instance, where A lends B 11,000, payable 
in ten years. You see at once it becomes a vital matter to 
A to know that the 11,000 log-ned to-day shall come back 
to him in bills or coin, worth 11,000 and not 1700. 

On the other hand, it is equally important to B that 
when the time comes for payment he will not be compelled 
to pay to A a sum equivalent to $1,300, instead of the $1,000 
he borrowed. The necessity, then, for a fixed standard of 
value is very apparent, as the only basis for successful and 
large commercial activity is the safety upon which future 
contracts can be made. These future contracts are called 
credits, and they are by far the most important element in 



298 THE SILVEB QUESTION. 

modern business. We all know that the Argentine Kepub- 
lic, with its possible $100 per capita of circulation, is not a 
successful, prosperous nation. 

Our own country at the close of the Revolution had any 
quantity of continental money, for it took a basketful of 
it to buy a bushel of corn. History does not speak of that 
period as one of prosperity. France, along toward the end 
of the eighteenth century, with such a supply of assignats 
that it took $1,500 to buy a pair of boots and $300 to pur- 
chase a pound of butter, was at the portals of the poorhouse, 
not at the gate of the palace. Our great panics of 1837, 
1857 and 1873, and the great flurry of 1890, did not come 
at times when money was scarce, but when it was 
redundant. 

THE PER CAPITA THEORY. 

The fact of the matter is, that what is called the per 
capita theory of money is extinct, and credit has so usurped 
the place of money among the advanced nations that the 
aim and purpose of intelligent government now is to main- 
tain the most important credit, and let the least important, 
the volume of money, in a measure take care of itself. 

England, with an internal and foreign commerce per 
capita greater than any nation in the world, does the most 
profitable and successful business known, with a per capita 
of about $18, while France uses $44 per capita to do less 
than one-half the per capita business of England. We, 
although our business is not anything like so large per 
capita as that of Great Britain, have 33-J^ per cent, more 
money for each inhabitant,^ and when our domestic and 
foreign trade is compared, we really have more than twice 
her relative per capita circulation. Think for a moment of 
foreign commerce. 

Money is hardly a factor in it. Tens, hundreds, and 
even thousands of millions of trade is done between the 
nations of the earth, and the clearings for it all are made 
not with cash, but in drafts, which are finally adjusted and 



THE SILVEB QUESTION. 299 

the balances paid in pounds sterling, and often tliey so 
nearly equalize themselves in the world^'s trade that no 
money whatever passes. Kemember, too, the money of the 
world's commerce is the English pound sterling, which is 
not a legal tender in but two or three nations outside of 
Great Britain. 

Credit makes currency much more rapidly than the mints, 
and without waste. When the standard of value is kept 
steady and unchangeable as a measure, confidence expands, 
and credit enlarges. A great banking-house can, by accept- 
ances, create the blood which nourishes trade in great sums, 
in millions, faster than the mints can coin. It does not 
draw gold or silver, nor confine it, and therefore supplies 
the sinews of trade in the cheapest possible way. When 
the transaction is closed, drafts or acceptances are retired, 
and there is no waste. Again, the nation which keeps her 
money on a parity with the best in the world never has too 
little. She can in her need draw, and does command for 
her use, all she needs from the store of the world. She is 
like a solvent merchant who can go to bank and get what 
money he needs, because the banker knows he will be 
repaid in full. 

England, in 1819, established her money upon a firm 
basis (gold) and has never departed from it, altered her 
standard, or tampered with it, and as a result, the world 
does its business with the pound sterling as its universal 
measure, its unit of value, and London has become the 
capital of the commercial world. And yet to-day, when we 
need foreign markets, when we must expand our commerce 
there are those who would, by the passage of such a meas- 
ure as the Bland bill, cause distrust of American money and 
of our commercial stability in every part of the world. We 
never needed a policy of stability more than now. 

Keep the standard of our money the gold dollar, and we 
shall draw the commerce of the hemispheres to our shores, 
and after a while the trade of the world will be measured 



300 THE SILVER QUESTION. 

and all commercial transactions be based upon our dollar, 
which, because of its decimal character, is more convenient 
than the English pound. If we maintain our standard, we 
can never have too much or too little money. The ebb and 
flow of the world^s commerce will take care of that, and 
higher interest will attract it here when needed, while low 
rates will expel it when we need commodities more and 
money less. 

THIS MEASUEE WILL CONTRACT AI^D DEBASE OUR 

CURREl^CY. 

The Bland bill will contract and debase our money. Mr. 
Blan(3/s claim, that the passage of his 1|ill will make money 
more plentiful, is misleading and untme. If all he claims 
is admitted, his error is exposed. AF present we do not 
only turn the silver product of the American mines into 
currency, but we are a large producer of gold, and we also 
draw gold from abroad, so that we minted in the year end- 
ing June 30, 1891, twenty-four millions of gold, and* this, 
added to the $54,000,000 supplied through the Treasury 
purchases of silver, gave us an aggregate increase for the 
year of about 178,000,000. 

Since 1873 we have in the eighteen years minted $729,- 
000,000 in gold alone, or an average of over 140,000,000 
per year. ISTow, under the Bland bill, this would cease, 
and free coinage would drive out our gold and leave what 
remained merchandise, as wheat, corn and cotton are. 
Unlimited coinage of gold and silver, on the basis of 16 per 
cent, of silver to 1 of gold, would drive out the gold, 
because it would undervalue it. Grold sells in all parts of 
the world for 22.86 times its weight in silver, and if under 
free coinage we only give it a value of 16, all human experi- 
ence shows we would have no gold in circulation after the 
President signed a free and unlimited coinage bill. 

As we now have about eighteen hundred millions of 
money in circulation, of which, say, six hundred millions is 



■*Si# 



1\ 






THE SILVER QUESTION. 303 

gold, we should suddenly find ourselves with but twelve 
hundred millions, which would enable us to do but two- 
thirds the business we now do, force out of employment 
one-third of the people now employed, and deprive them of 
the means of living. We were never able for any length of 
time to keep gold and silver in general use under free coin- 
age at our mints. We undervalued gold when we opened 
the mint in 1792, and we had practically a silver currency 
until 1834, when we changed our ratio of 15 of silver to 1 
of gold, and made 1 of gold worth 16 of silver. 

This change undervalued silver and drove it out, and we 
had an actual gold currency until after the wise and for- 
tunate act of demonetization, in February, 1873, which 
alone saved us from dropping again to a silver standard in 
1876, after silver became so plentiful and so cheap. As 
Mr. Bland only claims that the entire volume of silver 
seeking our Treasury and our mints would reach the annual 
sum of about 875,000,000, he, upon his own showing, con- 
demns his bill as an inflation measure, and when we con- 
sider that it would drive out gold, and thus contract the 
currency sharply, violently, dangerously, yes, ruinously, it 
seems as if only a madman could vote in support of it. 

THE gkesha:m: law. 

The principle I have spoken of is known as the G-resham 
law, and is as certain and positive in its action as the law 
of gravitation, as fixed as the throne of Him who made all 
natural laws. When I say that two legal-tender moneys of 
different market but having the same legal-tender value can 
not circulate unlimited in quantities side by side, and 
that the cheaper will always drive the dearer out, I simply 
state a law which has had no exception in human history. 
You can trace it from the time of Lycurgus down through 
Roman history, mediaeval Europe, through the history of 
France, England, Scotland, the United States, Mexico, 
Japan, in fact everywhere and in all ages. 



304 THE SILVER QUESTION. 

France, in the effort to make two metals circulate at a 
legal parity side by side, changed her mint ratio twenty- 
two times from 1602 to 1785, and after she fixed her ratio 
at 15^ of silver for 1 of gold, her history has been one not 
of bimetallism, but of monometallism, until she finally 
closed her mints to silver in 1876. From 1785 to 1848 she 
occasionally had gold, but usually silver, thus alternating 
from one to the other, sometimes standing on a gold foot, 
sometimes on a silver, but never on the two, and never hav- 
ing both metals in free and general circulation. From 1848 
to September, 1873, when she limited the silver taken at her 
mints, she had a practically exclusive gold metal currency. 
Since she limited the coinage of the cheaper, she has seen 
gold and silver circulated freely together. Mexico, which 
coins both gold and silver, has an exclusive silver currency, 
and her leading financial paper, on February 27, 1892, 
warned us against the Bland bill, because it would place the 
United States in the same unhappy condition. 

Every nation has had a similar experience, and the rule 
will not fail to be supreme law until gravitation ceases to be 
one of the forces of nature, or until water runs up hill, and 
the sun shines at night, while the moon rules by day. 

OUR OWK COINAGE HISTOEY. 

The fiction that under free coinage gold and silver, the 
money of the Constitution, as it is so glibly called, circu- 
lated side by side from 1792 to 1873 finds many believers, 
and perhaps it will be well to repeat here what few seem to 
know, and yet what every child may learn. 

Hamilton fixed an almost perfect ratio when he estab- 
lished free coinage in 1792, at the rate of 15 of silvgi'cto 1 
of gold, which gave silver a value of about 138 cents per 
ounce, a value which it retained for only a short time, and 
which it never quite reached again. As an ounce of gold 
would buy more than fifteen ounces of silver elsewhere, it 
was melted down, went out of the country, and we practi- 



TEE SILVER QUESTION. 305 

cally had no gold in circulation until after we changed the 
ratio again in 1834. 

So perfectly did the G-resham law work that our silver 
dollars, being a little lighter than the Mexican and yet cur- 
rent in Mexico, all went there, displacing the better Mexi- 
can dollar, which came to us. Seeing this, Jefferson 
stopped the coinage of silver dollars in 1806, and it was not 
resumed until after 1836. The fact of the matter is that 
only 1,439,457 four hundred, and twelve and a half grain 
silver dollars were ever minted in the United States for 
business purposes prior to 1836. The total coinage of 
silver dollars from 1792 to 1873, a period, say, of eighty 
years, was but some 18,000,000, or a little less than we now 
add to our circulation every two months, under the demon- 
etization and limited coinage of silver. 

In 1834 we changed the ratio to 1 of gold for 16 of silver, 
and silver was driven out and we had an exclusive gold coin 
currency up to the act of demonetization of 1873. In 1854, 
up to which time we permitted universal coinage for the 
account of individual owners of bullion, we found that we 
were using merchant's tokens, omnibus tickets, and postage 
stamps for change, the small premium on silver, compared 
with gold, causing all small coins to be melted down and 
sold. We then debased the subsidiary coinage about 8|- per 
cent., limited its coinage, and stopped the free coinage of it 
altogether. 

This was the first instance of demonetization and coinage 
limitation in our history, and at that time it loas distinctly 
achnoiuledged that lue luere on a gold basis, and so it con- 
tinued down to 1873, when the act of February 12 demon- 
etized the standard dollar. No complaint was made or 
objection was then raised, for the owners of silver bullion 
being able to sell it at about 132 to 133 per ounce, or about 
3 per cent, above its mint value, did not care for or want 
free coinage. 

I have been so careful to quote history, first, to show that 



306 THE SILVEB QUESTION. 

the popular idea that gold and silver circulated freely, side 
by side, as they now do under the limited coinage of the 
cheaper, when we had free coinage, is a myth, a mere fiction 
of the imagination, and also to show beyond doubt and to 
prove beyond cavil that unlimited coinage of silver to-day 
at a 16 to 1 ratio, when it is worth not 1, 2, or 3 per cent, 
less than gold, but 30 per cent, less, would drive out of 
circulation every dollar in gold and thus contract the cur- 
rency, produce bankruptcy, and bring such suffering and 
distress upon us as my lips cannot describe. Never, then, 
have we had free and unlimited bimetallism, never has any 
land and never can any nation enjoy bimetallism, as we do 
now, until the cheaper metal is deprived of its legal-tender 
quality or its coinage is limited. 

It will be interesting to those who have not studied the 
question to recall another application of this same Gresham 
law, by showing how any legal tender, if cheaper than the 
other, even if made of paper, will drive the dearer out. 
When, in February, 1862, we issued the first $150,000,000 
of legal-tender paper money and followed it by another 
$150,000,000, authorized by act of July 11, 1862, a premium 
on gold followed, which before the end of July had driven 
gold entirely out of circulation ; in fact, early in July it 
had reached small silver coins, which were worth less than 
gold, and crowded them out of general use. This produced 
the shinplasters of the war period. 

During the great civil war the Confederates had plenty 
of legal-tender paper, so plenty that a peck of it would, 
along toward the end of the great struggle, scarcely buy a 
sweet potato, but they had neither gold nor silver, so com- 
pletely had the Grresham law prevailed. It is passing strange 
that the gray-headed, grizzled veterans on either side of the 
great war of 1861 to 1865, who sit about me here to-day, 
brothers now, thank God, should not recall these facts, and 
repudiate such dangerous doctrine as is here placed before 
them in the Bland bill But besides reducing the quantity 



THE SILVER QUESTION, 307 

of money in circulation, and thus distressing the nation, 
free and unlimited coinage would, I have said, also debase 
our money. 

I understand several gentlemen on this floor have 
intended to point out the blunder I commit when I say 
that the supply of money will not only be reduced, but its 
quality and value will be debased. Their effort to do this 
and pour their carefully written-out ridicule upon me, 
would of course give me opportunity to expose their child- 
like ideas upon this question, but I forego this rich reward 
by saying that the seeming parodox is explained when I 
state the fact that our money would have two different 
values, a legal tender and a market value, as soon as 
we reached an exclusive silver basis and the exchange of 
silver for gold by the government ceased. All the laws 
we could pass here from January to December, from now 
until eternity, «would not materially alter its market 
(world) value, so that not only would we reduce the cilr- 
rency suddenly by one-third, depriving one-third of our 
people of employment, clothing, food and comfort, but we 
would at the same time degrade our dollar to 70 cents and 
repudiate at one blow 30 per cent, of the existing contracts 
between man and man, in all parts of the land, thereby 
stripping our nation and degrading and disgracing her 
before the face of all civilized people. 

THE DECEIVED PLANTEK OF THE SOUTH AKD CHEATED 
FAKMEE OF THE WEST. 

The effect upon a farmer in the South or West whom 
Mr. Bland has promised to, relieve by his bill is easily 
described, but its agony to him must be felt to be under- 
stood. His creditor, pushed himself by the reduction in 
the volume of the money caused by the Bland bill becoming 
a law, would be obliged to force his property to sale. If 
worth and easily salable at 112,000 now, owing to the forced 
contraction caused by the Bland bill, he would realize from 



308 THE SILVER QUESTION, 

it about 18,000, and if his debt happened to be payable in 
gold, this 18,000 would secure for him 15,600 in gold, or, 
in other words, the trusting farmer, who to-day is standing 
by with bated breath waiting for the salvation which the 
Bland bill is to bring him, would find its becoming a law 
would sweep away one-half of the savings of his lifetime. 
Truly, Mr. Bland would prove a worse curse to the farmer 
than all the dry seasons, wet seasons, frosts, cyclones, 
locusts, chinch bugs, and protective tariffs he has suffered 
from during the past decade. 

THE CREDITOE CLASS. 

Whenever a man tries to induce a voter to support the 
kind of legislation Mr. Bland proposes, he tells him he is a 
debtor, and cheaper money will cheat his creditor. You 
have just seen how it ruins the debtor. That it will deeply 
wrong the creditor is beyond a doubt true, for it is one of 
the results of this kind of crime that it hurts practically 
everybody. The creditor class, properly speaking, makes 
up 90 per cent, of our population, for every man who is 
solvent belongs to the creditor class. He may owe debts, 
but he has credits and other property in excess, and, broadly 
speaking, therefore, all but the actually insolvent are 
creditors. 

The small class, say 10 per cent, of our people, are 
debtors, and in the end it would be cheaper to forgive all 
they owe than to make the Bland bill law. But it may be 
as well to see what classes besides the farmer would suffer. 
The rich, like the Vanderbilts, the Goulds, and the Eocke- 
fellers, would be likely to escape, for they would, from the 
nature of things, turn up both large debtors and great credi- 
tors. What was due them would be found payable in gold 
when the shock came, while they in turn would collectively 
owe hundreds of millions, contracted to enlarge their gold- 
holdings and investments, all of which they would be able 
to pay off with 70-cent dollars ; for the moment the govern- 



THE SILVEE QUESTION. 309 

ment was compelled to stop exchanging silver dollars for 
gold, after the President had signed the bill, our money 
would drop to its world bullion value, and they, exchanging 
their gold securities and investments in the world^s market, 
would buy silver at 70 cents, or less, and pay off their poor 
creditors. 

It has been charged against me here on this floor, as if it 
were an element in the discussion of the coinage question, 
that I am a millionaire and distinctly opposed to a cheap 
dollar on this account. I am not a millionaire and am not 
trying to be, having found other things which fill up my 
life more agreeably and usefully than the pursuit of wealth ; 
but if the Bland bill becomes a law, I shall without effort 
on my part, certainly without much trouble to myself, 
easily become the very rich man Mr. Bland chooses to call 
me ; but the one hundred and sixty thousand people in the 
Fifteenth Ohio district, whose representative I am, would, 
many of them, be stripped of all they have, and all would 
be wronged by the devastating measure he is urging and 
which I am opposing. 

But who are the real creditors ? 

First. The 4,258,893 who own the 11,524,844,506 of 
deposits in savings banks. Free coinage would cost them 
$457,453,351. 

Second. The principal creditors next, and of the govern- 
ment too, are the 800,000 pensioners, whose $157,000,000 
of pensions would be cut down 147,000,000 in one year, or 
1470,000,000 in ten years. Then come the great army of 
5,000,000 policy-holders in life-insurance companies, whose 
$7, 500, 000, 000 in policies would be cut down $2, 250, 000, 000. 
After these, take the 500,000 men and women who have 
invested in building and loan associations. 

Then come the millions of clergymen, clerks, men in the 
army and navy and civil service, and others who work for 
salaries or fixed incomes, all of whom, while nominally get- 
ting one hundred cents would actually get but seventy 



310 THE SILVER QUESTION. 

cents. The Bland bill would cost these classes 1175,000,- 
000 a year. Last, but certainly not least, take the vast 
army of 10,085,956 workingmen, women and children (in 
1880), all of whom would to start with, suffer a large 
reduction in wages, due to the increased competition for 
the reduced amount of employment to be had, and then 
after getting lower nominal wages would find their dollar 
purchase but seventy cents' worth of goods, causing them a 
loss amounting to the stupendous annual sum of 11,210,- 
614,720. Every time the money of a country is debased, 
these are the classes which suffer most. 

The debasing of the currency of England by Henry VIII. 
and under the boy Edward YI., resulted in the practical 
enslavement of the poorer people, their final emancipation 
beginning not much before 1819, and they were only fully 
restored by the beneficent results of the tariff system, adopted 
under Sir Robert Peel, Eichard Oobden and John Bright, 
which they copied from our Democratic tariff of 1846, but 
improved and extended since by our English rivals. It is 
incredible that this Democratic house will by its vote at the 
close of this debate pass this Bland bill and turn against the 
poor, the helpless, and the most deserving in the land, two- 
thirds of whom are its own voters, and who look to it, next 
to God, as their friend and protector. 

I have heard it charged from the Republican side of this 
house that we were going to so vote in order that we may 
be returned to this house. I want to come back here as 
badly as any of you, but I will permit my tongue to be torn 
out before it gives its assent to a measure so infamous. 

THEIR SOLE OBJECT PUBLIC PLUKDER. 

But when we turn our eyes to see the moving spirit back 
of this bill, we discover it to be public plunder, pure and 
simple. The silver ring and the lobby see that the United 
States is buying for 90 cents what it turns out in coin at 



TEE SILVER QUESTION, 311 

129 cents, and tliey covet the apparent profit of about 
$20,000,000 per year resulting. 

They know, as well as Mr. Bland ought to know (I credit 
him with gross ignorance as the only excuse for his attitude), 
as well as you know, and as well as I know that, practically, 
all of the American silver produced goes into the money 
stock or supply of the nation, and at the best the Bland bill 
would only take from the public treasury this enormous 
annual sum, which, with interest, would swell in ten years 
to probably $320,000,000, and possibly to $450,000,000, and 
pour it into their pockets. They would not let this govern- 
ment have their silver when it could be sold for a trifle 
more than the mint rate, and now raise the howl that 
demonetization in 1873 did them injustice. Let us see. 

In 1834 the people, by their government, said to the 
silver owners and producers, "We will buy all the silver 
you bring us at 129.29 per ounce," but because they could 
get sometimes 130, sometimes, perhaps, 133 for it, they, 
never in the thirty-nine years, from 1834 to 1873, brought 
in practically any to the government, and finally the govern- 
ment decided to withdraw its offer, and close its mint to 
them. N"ow, when their other customers declined to buy, 
and their silver is worth but 90 cents, they demand that the 
government shall again step in and practically buy their 
unlimited supply of silver (worth really much less than 
90 cents per ounce) at 129 cents, and in doing so wreck 
the business of the country, and destroy the comfort and 
happiness of its people. 

To describe this as hoggishness is to slander that useful 
animal ; it resembles the greed of Satan rather than the 
instinct of any dumb animal we know of. They are demand- 
ing for what actually costs them less than 41 cents, and 
which sells nowhere in the world for more than 71 cents, a 
full 100 cents^ worth of the property, earnings or savings of 
their fellow citizens, and the Democratic party is asked to 
help them catch, bind and plunder the people. If it does. 



312 THE SILVER QUESTION. 

and heaven blasts it with its thunderbolts, or God withers 
it with his curse, the penalty will scarcely equal the crime. 

But see what we have already done for these people since 
1878. We have bought from them, made a market for and 
established a constant, fictitious and unnatural high price 
for 382,435,896 ounces of fine silver at a cost of 105.14 per 
ounce, so that the loss of the treasury on this, even at the 
present infiated market price, is now over $57,000,000, and 
if the treasury statements were to show this silver bullion as 
an asset, at the market instead of its cost value, our treasury 
would appear, as it actually is to-day, bankrupt. 

Worse than all this, if we were to attempt to sell this sil- 
ver bullion, stuff which even Austria, iRoumania and India 
do not any longer wish to have, as the basis of their mone- 
tary systems, the $57,000,000 loss would be increased to 
about $133,000,000, for in what part of the world can 
382,435,896 ounces of silver, or any considerable part of it, 
be sold for 70 cents an ounce, or, indeed, for any price 
within reason. 

The Bland bill, while called a free-coinage bill, is really 
a bill compelling the nation to buy all the silver this 
ring can get together, no matter how much it may prove to 
be, at 129.29 per ounce. It is easy to see this would utterly 
and hopelessly bankrupt the country, and might in the end 
create revolution and ultimately change the form of our 
government. 

THE DEMON^ETIZATIOif ACT OF 1873. 

As an excuse for this they claim the act of February 12, 
1873, demonetizing silver, was secretly passed and was an 
act of injustice to them. As to its secrecy. It was 
referred to in the reports of the Secretary of the Treasury 
for 1870, 1871 and 1872. 

The chairman of the Finance Committee of the Senate 
had it from Secretary Bout well (the late John Jay Knox 
being the author) on April 25, 1870. It was sent out for 



THE SILVER QUESTION. 313 

criticism to at least thirty experts in financial and coinage 
matters. It was printed thirteen times by order of Con- 
gress, considered at five sessions of the House and Senate, 
and the debate upon it occupies sixty-six columns in the 
Congressional Globe for the Senate, and seventy-eight for 
the House. If anything could be made more public, I do 
not know how it could be done. This cry is scandalous, 
and if it excites anything less than contempt among either 
the intelligent or the honest, I shall be surprised and lose 
faith in the common sense of men and in their power to 
control their own affairs. 

It is as if I having said in 1834 to a farmer, " I will take 
your wheat at $1.29 per bushel, ^^ and finding he never 
sold me a bushel, or at least very few, during the next 
thirty-nine years (because he could sell it in the next town 
for a trifle more), I should at the end of the nearly two 
score years decide, after advertising my possible intention 
to withdraw from the market, in from ten to thirty papers, 
and by handbills, finally cease to buy. 

Suppose, then, that some years after, when wheat fell to 
90 cents, he should catch me by the throat and attempt to 
force me to take all he could haul to me, would not my 
neighbors join together and string him up to a tree ? 

But the most singular thing about it all is the brazen impu- 
dence with which those bonanza senators and mine owners 
and the great silver ring of the far west advertise the fact 
that they do not want any silver dollars themselves, and 
will not take any, or put themselves where they may be 
forced to do so. In California they have made the taxes 
payable in gold. 

In a number of far west states they will not let an 
eastern insurance company do business in them unless it 
has a paid up capital in gold. They have also arranged 
their commercial business and forms of contracts so that 
gold alone is a good payment. Loans of money, made by 
the chiefs of the silver ring, are repayable in gold. At their 



314 THE SILVER QUESTION. 

banks you will find yourself unable to borrow a dollar unless 
you make your note payable in gold. Only last Wednesday, 
in the House, a delegate from one of these silver regions 
stated publicly that his territorial government could save 
$75,000 per year on interest alone by making its bonds pay- 
able in gold, and I hold in my hand here a lot of notes 
representing the current business of six different states and 
territories, all of which call not for dollars, but for United 
States gold coin dollars. 

In other words, these people are ready to cheat you out of 
house and home and give you this kind of notice, yet we 
are told that a lot of southern and western members are 
too blind to see the handwriting on the wall. 

IT IS EEPUBLIOAiq' CLASS LEGISLATION^, KOT A DEMOCEATIC 

MEASUEE. 

Again, this entire swindle is a piece of class legislation in 
character just like the McKinley bill, a measure to tax and 
burden the millions in order to enrich a handful. It is like 
the McKinley bill, only far worse, in that its effects will be 
more damaging to the country. It will do more harm, if it 
becomes a law, in one month than the McKinley bill, 
iniquitous as it is, can do in thirty years. I have known 
its origin for a long time, and I am astonished to find that 
it is not known to all. It is a Kepublican measure, first 
presented by Judge Kelley, of Pennsylvania. 

It was copied by Mr. Bland one week after, and will go 
down in history to plague him, and, if it ever becomes a law, 
to gather on his head the curses of millions living and of 
multitudes yet unborn. It is due to Mr. Bland to say that 
he did not create, originate or invent the bill. Coming from 
Judge Kelley, or any other honest but mistaken protec- 
tionist, it is a perfectly consistent measure. Mr. McKinley, 
Mr. Harrison, Mr. Blaine, and their followers can be 
enamored of it, and we can understand and even excuse, 
for, they have always believed in class legislation, have con- 



THE SILVER QUESTION. 315 

stantly urged taxing the whole people for the benefit of the 
few manufacturers and trusts. It is a long step, but in the 
same direction which would lead them to support this 
Kelley-Bland measure. 

But you see it is too rank even for them. When Judge 
Kelley offered it on July 18, 1876, silver was worth over a 
dollar an ounce. It is doubtful, if he were alive, whether 
he would be found supporting it to-day. It is almost 
beyond belief that Democrats here or anywhere in any con- 
siderable numbers favor it. If it becomes a law, or even 
goes into our platform, or is indorsed in this House, will 
not seventy per cent, of our own voters rise up and curse us 
at the November elections this fall ? 

NOT A FKEE-COINAGE BILL AT ALL. 

This bill is called a free-coinage bill. It is not such in 
any proper sense whatever, and it is, pure and simple, a bill 
to compel the people of the United States to buy the entire 
product of a most prosperous and flourishing interest, small 
in the number of its members but very rich in dollars and 
cents, at a price which gives them on the cost of produc- 
tion (if stated in the language of ordinary protection) a 
protective tariff or bounty of over 143 per cent. Not con- 
tent with this enormous burden which the bill places on the 
over 63,000,000 of our people in no way interested as 
owners of silver mines, it proposes to make us the virtual 
purchasers of all the silver produced in the world and at 
129 cents per ounce, while much of it costs not over 37 
cents per ounce, and a great deal of it, after deducting the 
profits on the lead products, not over 5 to 20 cents an 
ounce. 

I submit that an equally mad proposition never secured 
the assent of any legislative body in the world, and if it 
passes this House, now that its provisions are laid bare, it 
will be a record which will come back to plague and shame 
its members down to the hour when they drop into their 



316 THE SILVER QUESTION. 

coffins. If we are to have coinage and free coinage we 
must follow law and precedent. We must aim to do as 
this country has always done before, and as every other 
nation has done, and that is to make the coinage ratio in 
close accord with market ratios. 

This we did when we opened our mint in 1792 and again 
in 1834, and this honesty, decency, common sense, justice, 
equity, laAV, and precedent demand to-day. Therefore, if 
we are to have free coinage the ratio should be 23 of silver 
to 1 of gold. But as silver is likely to fall to at least 80 cents 
per ounce, and possibly to 70 cents per ounce in the reason- 
ably near future, it would be wise to anticipate part, at 
least, of this fall, and coin it ; or if we must issue notes for 
it, which ought not to be done, we should do so at the ratio 
of 26 to 1, instead of, as this bill proposes, at 16 to 1. 

I object to the issuing of any notes for bullion for the 
reason that if the owners will not take coined dollars for 
their bullion it is the best kind of evidence that the people 
do not want any more silver dollars, and I openly and boldly 
charge that this is to-day the fact and that it has actually 
been true for years and that this entire agitation is a case of 
fraud and false pretense. In coining silver the true rule 
should be to simply attest by the stamp of the government 
its weight and purity. 

If coined into ounces all contracts, notes, and agreements 
drawn in ounces would be inforced by the courts just as 
dollar contracts are, with the result that no citizen would be 
wronged, and every particle of silver the business of the 
country needed would be coined. 

We hear the foolish cry that it is Wall street which would 
suffer by the passage of this bilh How silly this when we 
remember that the profits of Wall street are made by the 
fluctuations of the market, and that the change from a 
stable standard of value to a fluctuating and uncertain one, 
such as the silver ring proposes, would throw the entire 
business of the country into a kind of gamble out of which 



THE SILVER QUESTION. 317 

Wall street would make its millions, its tens of millions, 
yes, its hundreds. The farmers, the business men, the 
working people, the pensioners, the widows, and the 
orphans in our Congressional districts would simply lose 
what Wall street would make. 

This law resulting in a single standard, and that silver, 
would cause prices, as in India with her silver rupee circu- 
lation, to bob up and down 1 or 2 per cent, a day, accord- 
ing to the whims and caprices of the speculating fraternity 
of Wall street and Capel court. 

What the West and South both need is the early and 
thorough development of their resources, which follows the 
rattle and dust of the railroad train, and yet if we have free 
and unlimited coinage of silver it will stop railroad building 
outside of the older states. 

Existing companies have too many gold obligations now 
outstanding to care to incur more ; new companies would 
fear to go in debt upon that basis ; and yet capital for such 
uses could alone be secured upon bonds, the principal and 
interest of which would be payable expressly in gold, the 
actual and only standard of value among civilized people. 
Not only would old roads be unable to extend, but many of 
them would be ruined, all or nearly all of their bonds and 
other obligations being payable in gold, while their income 
hereafter would be in silver. 

A step toward a silver standard would be a proclamation 
to the sections of the country that need them most that no 
more railroads shall be built among them, and that to enrich 
a handful of silver producers and schemers the entire South 
and West is to be set back a generation or two for their 
natural and certain fortunes. 

THE REAL EEMEDY AND THE SAFE AND COMMONPLACE CURE 
FOR PRESENT FINANCIAL ILLS. 

Every man knows, too, that free-silver coinage will not 
produce what the West and South want, that is, money for 



318 THE SILVER QUESTION. 

local uses. They have mints at New Orleans and at San 
Francisco, but their products take wings and fly to New 
York and the East, where money is lending at 2 per cent. 
per annum, while scarce and hard to get at high rates in the 
West and South. If you were to put Tip another mint at 
Omaha, another in the middle of Kansas, and another in a 
swamp in Florida, the result would be the same. Your re- 
lief must come from another direction, from some sure, safe, 
commonplace, but efficient source. 

I allude to a sound and safe banking system. A system 
which will do this without granting special privileges, with- 
out cost to the people, but with great profit to the treasury 
is now in the hands of the Committee on Banking of this 
House. It will provide precisely what the West and South 
and the whole country should have, and the time to make 
it law is here. The Democratic party should abandon this 
crazy, well-meant, but dangerous Bland bill. 

It is loaded with dynamite for the country and with 
damnation for the party. Drop it and take up some whole- 
some, everyday, business-like fiscal legislation like this bank- 
ing law suggests, pass it, and make the nation your ever- 
lasting debtor. But before you do anything, except vote 
down the Bland bill, pass an act stopping the monthly pur- 
chases of silver and instructing the director of the mint, 
under the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury, with the 
approval of the President, to sell the silver bullion for gold, 
and place the gold in the treasury, until the amount of our 
gold bullion shall be equal to the value of our silver bullion. 

Let them choose their time and make the exchange as 
wisely as they can. This course alone will save the country 
from ultimate panic, general financial distress, and the single 
silver standard, for if the monthly purchase of $4,500,000 
of silver bullion is not stopped, sooner or later more evil 
will result than any words of mine can picture. 

We are in a peculiar position to-day, and a most fortunate 
one, too. Great crops here and small ones abroad give us 



THE SILVER QUESTION. 319 

Heaven^s opportunity to correct our mistakes of the past. 
Stop silver purchases, restore confidence in us in Europe, 
and gold will flow back here in a stream. 

We would, but for this Bland-bill discussion, be getting 
in from Europe fifteen or twenty millions of gold a month ; 
instead of this, alarmed and excited, Europe is sending 
back our stocks, bonds and securities by the ream. Her 
purchases of a quarter of a century past are coming back by 
every steamer, and instead of gold reaching our shores it 
pours out and away from us through every channel. Con- 
tinue this wild craze for free silver, and fair crops in Europe 
next year will bankrupt the United States. Neglect our 
present great opportunity, and who can tell when it will 
come again ? Let us counsel and compel wise and pru- 
dent action now, to-day, instantly, and those who come 
after us will praise our wisdom and bless our memories. 
Neglect this opportunity, and the names of those whose 
votes fasten ruin on our land will rot. I might say very 
much more on this question, but I have taken all of your 
time which I dare ask. 

I beg to be forgiven if I have said a word that hurts the 
feelings of any member of this House. It has not been my 
intention or wish to utter a syllable which would grate on 
any ear, but I have been so wholly absorbed in the fearful 
consequences to my country which must follow this class of 
legislation, that I have forgotten men while denouncing the 
measure. 

In closing, I make no partisan appeal ; I believe this leg- 
islation, if it becomes a law, or appears in the platform of 
our party, will shipwreck it, but I am willing to shut my 
eyes to all that, for I hold one thing higher than any party 
tie, and that is the welfare and honor of my country. I 
simply, in the name of the nation and in the interests of all 
honest men everywhere, and for the sake of the poor and 
helpless, and for the cause of truth, honesty and decency. 



320 THE SILVER QUESTION. 

ask the members of this House to crush this monstrous bill. 

I have done. 

Mr. Williams, of Massachusetts. I yield to the gentleman 
from Maryland [Mr. Eayner]. 

Mr. Eayner. Mr. Speaker, I shall endeavor, in the re- 
marks that I propose to make upon this subject, to treat this 
question not from a political or party standpoint, but, in as 
plain and intelligible a manner as I can to discuss it as an 
economical and financial problem whose practical solution is 
now upon us, and which must be met in a spirit of honesty 
and patriotism for the best interests of the American people. 

HOKEST MONEY. 

I apprehend that we are all in favor of honest money, that 
we are not in favor of a depreciated and fluctuating currency, 
that we want a measure of value that is certain and stable 
and not one that is variable and changeable from day to day, 
and that has different values in the different localities in 
which it may be employed. An honest man when he owes 
a dollar is willing to pay a dollar, and when he gives a dol- 
lar's worth of labor or sells a dollar's worth of merchandise 
expects to receive a dollar in return. If this dollar, when 
it is in the shape of a legal-tender note, is sustained by the 
credit of the government, or by an equivalent amount of 
treasure in the government vault, then the paper dollar is 
an honest dollar. If it is in the shape of coin and when 
melted in the crucible is worth a dollar, then it is also an 
honest dollar. If, however, the government has not the 
means or resources to redeem its paper promises, or if the 
government stamps the mark of a dollar upon a piece of 
bullion that is not worth a dollar, then, in either event, we 
have a dishonest dollar. 

This is the difference between honest and dishonest money. 
It would be hard to believe that any class of people in this 
country were in favor of dishonest money. No one could 
possibly derive any benefit from a depreciated currency. If 




SEN. Z. B. VANCE. 



THE SILVER QUESTION, 323 

it enabled a debtor to pay less than the amount of his 
indebtedness it would at the same time compel him as a 
borrower to receive less than he is entitled to, and as a 
consumer to pay more for what he receives. Besides, this 
dishonest money unsettles values, disturbs credit, violates con- 
tracts, engenders speculation, and invariably results in panic 
and disaster. I therefore assume that we require that which 
every other substantial people in the civilized world require, 
and that is money that is actually worth what it pui-ports 
to be, and not money that is artificially appreciated and 
that has a government falsehood stamped upon its face. 

THE SILVER DOLLAE. 

Our present silver dollar is dishonest. It does not come 
up to the test that I have referred to, and it is not a dollar 
in any sense of the word, except in so far as a congressional 
fiat or a government device can make it so. A silver dollar 
contains 371^ grains of pure silver, and 371^ grains of silver 
are only worth 70 cents, or thereabout. A gold dollar con- 
tains 23.22 grains of pure gold, and if melted is worth a 
dollar the world over, and is an honest dollar. The ratio is 
wrong. That is to say, 16 grains of silver are not equal in 
value to 1 grain of gold. We have, therefore, two kinds of 
dollars in circulation. One that is honest and properly 
labeled ; the other that is dishonest and falsely labeled. 

Xow, it is all very well to say that it is not silver that 
has depreciated, but gold that has depreciated ; but the 
fact still remains that unless you clip, amalgamate, or dete- 
riorate the gold dollar, as has been suggested, that the pres- 
ent gold dollar, if melted, has a purchasing power 30 per 
cent, greater than a silver dollar if melted, and that there- 
fore the two dollars are not upon a bullion parity, though 
they are upon a parity by law. In this connection I am not 
much disturbed by the platitude that is continually obscur- 
ing the vision of our silver friends, and that is, that the 
money of the Constitution is gold and silver. This is true 



324 THE SILVER QUESTION. 

in a certain sense^, but it is not true that the ratio of the 
one to the other is defined by the Constitution, and it is the 
ratio alone that is giving us all the trouble. I am a bimet- 
allist according to the true meaning and definition of the 
term, I am not in favor of the monometallism of gold nor 
of the monometallism of silver. I am in favor of both met- 
als, but of both upon an interchangeable basis of value, as 
was undoubtedly contemplated by the Constitution. 

Well, now, the question is asked, if the silver dollar is not 
worth a dollar, how is it that it passes as a dollar from hand 
to hand, and has a purchasing power equal to that of the 
gold dollar ? The answer is that legislation has given it an 
artificial value. When I speak of legislation I mean, of 
course, the act of July 14, 1890, authorizing the purchase 
of 4,500,000 ounces of silver monthly, to be paid in Treas- 
ury notes. I am of the opinion that this act, if not 
repealed or modified, will eventually be attended with the 
most disastrous consequences, and that under it it will be 
impossible to keep the two metals at a parity. If the 
balance of trade should turn strongly against us, or if heavy 
shipments of gold are made to foreign countries, then the 
storm will come, and it will come so quickly that it will 
strain the financial resources of the country to weather it 
and make for a harbor of safety. This act should never 
have been passed. It was a political expedient of the 
Eepublican party, and a temporary device to do two things 
at one and the same time, two things utterly conflicting in 
their nature — to gratify the silver mine owners, and at the 
same time to keep the two metals at a parity in the Ameri- 
can market. 

But the silver mine owners are not at all gratified by this 
act. They condemn it, though upon opposite grounds, in 
terms quite as severe as those pronounced upon it by the 
Chamber of Commerce of New York. They want free and 
unlimited coinage ; and this brings me to the vital point at 
issue upon which this House has been flooded with a mass 



THE SILVER QUESTION. 325 

of literature and contemplated legislation that makes reason 
stand aghast. Never in the financial history of this country- 
has so glaring a fraud been projected, and such a raid been 
attempted upon the earnings and savings of the people. 
When I say fraud, I speak of the necessary effect of this 
movement, and not of the motives of its advocates, a 
majority of whom are influenced by the best intentions and 
the most earnest convictions upon this subject. 

Just think of it ! It is not enough that we purchase the 
entire output of the American mines, which we are now 
doing, but we must open our mints to the whole surplus 
silver of every country on the earth, and we must not only 
agree to do this forever, but we must also bind ourselves to 
coin their silver at a figure at least 30 per cent, more than it 
is worth in any of the markets or commercial centers of the 
world. The people really do not understand this business. 
They are being imposed upon and deceived. When they 
once grasp it, as they will, they will scatter these bills to 
the winds, and this delusion will disappear so quickly and 
so efiectually that it will only be remembered with derision, 
as has been the fate of other heresies of the same character 
which made their appearance under the same auspices, 
captivating and gathering converts until they were once 
understood, and when the revelation came, going down to 
their resting places w^ith no monument to show where they 
lie and with no epitaph save the ridicule and dishonor that 
followed them to their graves. , 

There is no one to profit by this fraud except the mine 
owners, who are to have the privilege of dumping their 
bullion upon the people at a coinage price away above its 
market value. Of course, I appreciate the fact that it is an 
excellent thing for them, giving them about 118,000,000 a 
year more 23rofit than they are making now, and they can 
well afford to inundate us with whole libraries of literature 
and employ a host of advocates to advance and promote this 
scheme before committees. Who will get this money when 



326 TEE SILVER QUESTION. 

the mints are opened and 70 cents can be coined into a 
government dollar ? Will the people receive any of it ? 
Not the clipping of an eagle. Every dollar of profit^ in- 
stead of going to the government and through the govern- 
ment to people, as it does now, will go deep down into the 
pockets of the Nevada and Colorado millionaires, as with 
flying colors they march to the doors of the mint and de- 
mand of its director that he stamp a flaming lie upon the 
product of their mines. 

THE ALLEGED DEMONETIZATION^ OF SILYEE. 

But, say they, we are entitled to this profit because silver 
was demonetized in 1873, and we only ask its restoration. 
What an utter pretense and mockery this is. Demonetized 
how ? Why, there was no silver worth mentioning that 
could be demonetized in 1873. There has been more silver 
coined by the mints in three months after this alleged de- 
monetization than there had been in the whole century 
that preceded it. Silver had risen to a premium in 1873. 
In other words, it was worth more in bullion than it was in 
money. So that when coinage was suspended standard sil- 
ver dollars were not in existence. I am not now justifying 
the methods by which this legislation was brought about. 
It is not motives, it is facts that we are seeking for, and the 
fact is that no objection was urged against this act, no out- 
cry was made against it, until the discovery of the great sil- 
ver deposits and the consequent depreciation of silver 
bullion. 

When silver was more valuable in bullion than in coin, 
then the mine owners were not very much concerned about 
its demonetization, but the moment the bullion value fell 
below the coinage value, then it became a great outrage not 
to coin it at a premium. If we are to determine upon the 
character of the crime by the uproar that has been raised 
upon it, a general massacre of the people would hardly have 
exceeded it in atrocity. I confess that it is horrible to con- 



THE SILVER QUESTION. 327 

template how these gentlemen were curtailed of their right 
to convert 70 cents' worth of silver into a government 
dollar ; but I humbly suggest that if we propose to restore 
to them this bounty, that Ave proceed all along the line and 
give a 30 per cent, bounty to the farmer upon his agri- 
cultural products, to the manufacturer and the merchant 
upon their goods, and to the laborer upon his wages. They 
all need it, I am sure, in a much greater degree than the 
surfeited monopolists in question, and they have precisely 
the same right to appeal to this government for protection. 
But let us assume, for the sake of argument, that a great 
crime was committed by demonetizing silver in 1873 ; is that 
a reason why Ave should commit the greater crime of demon- 
etizing gold in 1892 ? 

THE DEMOKETIZATIO]^ OF GOLD. 

Is there any doubt but that the free and unlimited coin- 
age of silver means the demonetization of gold ? Not its 
demonetization by depreciating it, but by driving it to a 
premium and forcing it from the channels of circulation. 
Upon this point Ave need not appeal to Gresham's laAv or to 
any other law of political economy. Let us appeal to the 
law of common sense, if there be any common sense left 
upon this subject. A merchant or a farmer or a laborer 
owes $100 ; he has one hundred silver dollars, which are 
only worth $70, and one hundred gold dollars, which are 
worth $100 or more, to pay the debt with ; how will he pay 
it — in silA^er or in gold ? Where in the financial history of 
any country has there ever been an exception to that uni- 
versal principle, as unbending as the laAvs of nature, that 
the cheaper metal always drives the dearer metal out of 
circulation? 

What, then, will be the result of free and unlimited coin- 
age ? Inevitably, that gold will be hoarded and concealed, 
that we Avill be brought to a silver basis, and that there Avill 
be a contraction instead of an expansion of the currency. 



328 THE SILVER QUESTION. 

The 1600,000,000 worth of gold which was in circulation, 
according to the report of the Director of the Mint, on 
re';ruary 1, 1891, will leave the channels of trade, and we 
will be compelled to devise some new system of finance to 
meet the emergency. But the silver lobby says this is all 
conjecture and false prophecy. Let us see whether it is. 
In 1822 the ratio was 1 to 15, and gold was relatively the 
more valuable. What was the result ? Why, of the $6,000,- 
000 of gold coined up to that time not a dollar was in circu- 
lation. In 1834 the ratio was changed and made 1 to 15-J-. 

Silver was then worth more than gold. What was the 
result ? The silver dollar disappeared entirely from circu- 
lation. At the present ratio, silver would unquestionably 
drive gold out of the country if the equilibrium of the law 
once gave away to free coinage ; and then what would be 
our condition ? There is no longer any guesswork, pre- 
sumption, or probability about it. Every well-balanced 
financier in the world would stake his rejDutation upon it 
that we would be brought to a silver basis, and upon a finan- 
cial level with Eussia, Mexico, the South and Central 
American Eepublics, and every other begging and impov- 
erished government in the world. 

But it is said that other countries cannot spare their 
silver ; that there is no surplus of silver in the world, and 
even if we open our mints to free coinage, our coinage will 
not exceed its present limit, namely, the product of Ameri- 
can mines. If this is so, why not restrict the coinage to 
American silver ? But it is not so. The moment we pass 
a law offering to coin the world^s silver at a profit of 30 per 
cent, more than it is worth, from that moment, surplus or 
no surplus, we get all the silver that we can coin, and in 
exchange we ship our gold to foreign countries. Mr. Leech, 
the Director of the Mint, estimates the annual silver product 
of the world at $168,000,000. But this is not all that we 
will be called upon to coin. 

The Secretary of the Treasury has stated, and I believe 



THE SILVEE QUESTION. 329 

his statement to be true, that there is in Germany, Austria, 
and other countries of Europe more than $200,000,000 of 
silver, to say nothing of the vast hoards of silver in Mexico 
and the South American countries, in the shape of coin and 
jewelry, that would come to this country the moment we 
were ready to pay $1.29 an ounce for it, or even a lower 
rate. Besides this, the Bank of France holds at a loss an 
enormous amount of silver which it would lose no time in 
selling at a profit in the American market. We might as 
well cease talking about any international agreement ujoon 
this subject, just so long as we adhere to this delusion of 
opening our mints to the unlimited coinage of the world. 

The governments of Europe are anxiously awaiting the 
time when the opening will take place. They will attend it 
without being formally invited, and we may rely upon one 
thing, and that is, that they will never reciprocate the com- 
pliment of inviting us to any convention that they may 
hold for the purpose of settling the coinage and adjusting 
the ratio between the two metals. When we are once upon 
a purely silver basis, we will stand about as much chance of 
being asked to a conference of this sort as the naked sav- 
ages upon the banks of the Gambian River, whose circulat- 
ing medium consists of rum, and molasses, and hair oil, and 
elephants^ teeth. 

I confidently claim that the best and safest guide that we 
can follow upon this question is the experience of other 
countries that have passed through the same difficulties and 
have been confronted with the same crisis that we are now 
approaching, and Avho have successfully stemmed the tor- 
rent and emerged from the danger. What is this experi- 
ence ? We have been told over and over again that for the 
last thirteen years there has not been a full legal-tender sil- 
ver coin struck in any of the European mints. In England 
silver is subsidiary. In France, Belgium, Switzerland, 
Italy and Greece the coinage of full legal-tender silver was 
suspended in 1878. 



330 THE SILVER QUESTION. 

N'orway, Sweden, Denmark and Holland haye practically 
taken their stand upon a gold basis, and, as testified to by 
the Director of the Mint before the Committee on Coinage, 
Weights and Measures, the only countries to-day that main- 
tain the unlimited coinage of silver are India, Japan, 
Mexico and the South American Republics. Is not this an 
unanswerable argument against the folly of our course ? 
Does not this indicate the dangerous precipice that we are 
approaching ? Does it not show with unerring precision 
that we are gradually leaving the field of sound finance and 
chasing a chimera that will lead us to destruction and into 
such unfathomable depths that human ingenuity will search 
in vain for any device or contrivance that can extricate or 
rescue us ? 

THE PER CAPITA APPAEITIOK. 

It is said, however, that we require more money than any 
of these countries that I have named, and that instead of 
having more, we have less. I wish I had the time to enter 
into the details of this latter branch of the investigation. 
I simply deny this statement. If any reliance can be placed 
upon the financial reports that have been authoritatively 
issued from the departments of almost every European 
government, we have a larger per capita circulation to-day 
than any of the countries of Europe, with the exception of 
France and the Netherlands. We have a per capita of over 
125, while the average in Great Britain and G-ermany is 
only $18, and the other countries of continental Europe 
have scarcely one-third of the per capita circulation that 
we have. If increase in the average circulation is evidence 
of prosperity, we ought to be very happy, because it is 
greater now than it has ever been before. 
• But this apparition that is fluttering before us has not 
even the semblance of reality or substance about it. The 
moment that we enter upon the arena of averages and per 
capita, we are chasing shadows and phantoms around the 



THE SILVER QUESTION. 331 

circle of a ghost dance. Suppose there was a little settle- 
ment of one hundred persons, and there were $100,000 
in the settlement, and the whole of it was held hy fifty 
persons, what good would that confer upon the other 
fifty ? A per capita circulation would make it $1,000 a 
head, hut this would not be the truth. It is not the small- 
ness of the circulation that is causing the stringency that is 
being complained of ; it is the want of circulation that pro- 
duces stagnation. Our wealth is centralized and monopo- 
lized to a large extent by the silver barons and their pro- 
tected kindred, and kept from the public veins and arteries 
and from the channels of trade and commerce. 

Instead of requiring a larger circulation, I contend that 
we can succeed with a smaller circulation than any other 
country, because our system of credits, exchanges, drafts, 
checks, and bank, warehouse, and storage certificates give 
us facilities and advantages that no other country in the 
world possesses. There is generally an abundance of money 
to be found, at low rate of interest too, if collaterals are 
forthcoming, and it is a very rare instance to find an indi- 
vidual or a community unable to obtain money if they have 
an equivalent to give in exchange. This silver delusion is 
proceeding upon the theory that an additional amount of 
money is to be distributed whether there is anything to give 
in exchange for it or not, and, taking advantage of this 
sophism, the silver lobby is playing upon the ignorance of 
the masses and deceiving them with a cry of cheap money, 
a cry that will be turned into bitter lamentations whenever 
we experience the full effects of this legislation. 

But, say they, the people will derive the benefit of free 
coinage, because it will necessarily give them more money, 
relieve debtors, raise prices, create a market for agricultural 
products, and generally bring about an era of fiusli times 
and inflation. This is the same old war-whoop under 
which, in days gone by, whole battalions of innocent vic- 
tims have marched to financial ruin and destruction. Thank 



332 THE SILVER QUESTION. 

Heaven, the hour has come when men think and reason 
upon these subjects, and sober thought and intelligence 
dominate the counsels of the nation. 

Now, I want, with all the emphasis that I can, to put 
this question to the men who are in earnest in the assertion 
that it will be of benefit and advantage to the people for 
this government, single-handed, to adopt the policy of free 
and unlimited coinage of silver. You say that such a policy 
will not have the effect of deluging this country with the 
silver of other countries ; that the world has no silver to 
spare, and that it is an idle prediction and calamity- 
prophesying, as you call it, to suppose that foreign silver 
will flood our markets when we open our mints to receive 
it. I take you at your word now — strictly at your word — 
and I grant you, for the sake of argument, that you are 
right, and Secretary Windom and Secretary Foster and the 
ablest financiers of the country were wrong when they 
indulged in such gloomy forebodings. 

Well, then, what follows ? That we will only consume 
our own silver, namely, the product of the American mines. 
That is your contention. Now, tell me, if you please, and 
explain to the American people, the victims of your con- 
templated policy, how that will give them any more money 
or be of the slightest influence in increasing the circulation 
of the country. We all know that the government is tak- 
ing at the present time the whole output of the American 
mines, and if it is doing that, and no more will come to it, 
from what source, then, will there be an increase or addition 
to the present circulation ? In other words, as I have 
always contended, it is not the people who are to receive any 
money ; it is the mine-owners, who, instead of selling their 
silver under the present law at the market price, are to be 
invested with the privilege of coining it at a fictitious and 
inflated value. 

And this, Mr. Speaker, is the whole business, and all 
there is in it and all there is of it, and the moment you 



THE SILVER QUESTION. '333 

take away from these bills the interest of the mine-owners 
who are supporting them, the good sense of the American 
people will shatter them into fragments, and not a com- 
ponent part will be left. Stripped and scaled of its gloss 
and glitter, this is tlie contest, a contest in which the peo- 
ple have not the slightest interest, except to demand of 
their representatives that they shall not legislate to sub- 
sidize the silver syndicates of Nevada and Colorado ; that 
no such excessive tribute shall be paid to them ; that they 
shall not be permitted, under any pretence, to coin their 
product at any profit beyond the market price ; that they 
shall not be allowed to enter into any copartnership with 
the government, and that when they come here demanding 
protection for their mines and a premium upon their treas- 
ure, they shall be told in plain and unmistakable terms that 
we will never stamp a false impression upon our coin to 
gratify the greed or avarice of any class or section of this 
country, no matter what influence they may wield or how 
potential they may be. 

THE EFPECT OF EKEE COINAGE UPOi^' THE EASMEE. 

It is principally to the farmer, however, that the silver- 
mine owners are ajopealing in their frantic effort to 
realize the great contingent which is awaiting the realiza- 
tion of its hopes. K^ow, after they receive this contingent, 
what is the farmer to receive ? Will they agree to divide 
their fees with him ? AYill they agree to divide the $18,- 
000,000 of additional profit that they are to make ? Will they 
dole out a small pittance of it to the farmer ? They are 
using him as the means and instrument to make this profit. 
They are parading him as the victim of a monetary gold 
unit ; now, what will they pay him for becoming the victim of 
a monetary silver unit ? If a farmer requires a thousand 
dollars with which to improve or stock his farm, what sort 
of dollars will the philanthropists of I^evada and Colorado 
give him to make his purchases with ? Will they give him 



334 THE SILVER QUESTION. 

or will he get a thousand one-hundred-cent dollars, or a 
thousand seventy-cent dollars. 

Gentlemen, every one knows that he will get a thousand 
free and unlimited coinage silver dollars. What sort of 
dollars will they be ? They will be dollars (which in bullion 
cost the mine-owners about 60 cents) which are worth 70 
cents, but upon which they have procured the government 
to stamp the spurious emblem of 100 cents. But this is 
not all. Is not a large amount of the indebtedness of the 
country which is to-day borne by the agricultural interests 
payable by the terms of the contract in gold coin, and will 
not gold coin be called for in every contract the moment 
that a debased silver dollar is made a legal tender ? Now, 
I ask simply, in the spirit of innocent inquiry, as these bas- 
tard dollars are being delivered with all the expedition of 
the mint, whether the farmers of the country in their 
orisons and daily supplications will be likely with tears of 
gratitude to return their thanks to their benefactors for 
the manifold mercies that they have showered upon them in 
compelling them to buy gold at a premium in order to 
liquidate the debts they have contracted to pay in gold ? 

TEEE COIKAGE FOR THE LABOREE. 

But the farmer is not the only dupe who is being deceived 
in this matter. How about the laborer ? He is the sacri- 
fice and the suiferer, confessedly so, in a worse degree than 
any other individual in the community. Will he stand by 
simply gazing at this revolution without sounding an alarm 
or raising the signal of danger ? Everywhere, in every 
intelligent discussion of the subject, it is substantially con- 
ceded that the coinage of a 70-cent dollar is equivalent to 
a 30 per cent, reduction in the standard of wages. The 
laborer has nothing to sell except his labor. Will the price 
of labor rise ? Never under such a policy as this. The 
whole experience of the past, the axioms of political econ- 
omy, the laws that govern employer and wage-earner, all 



THE SILVEB QUESTION. 335 

proclaim to us that the coinage of an inferior metal means, 
and must mean, a reduction not only in wages, but also in 
the purchasing power of wages. 

This is precisely what is claimed by the opposition, 
namely, that articles of consumption will rise in value, and 
that the producer will receive more money for his product. 
Admitting this to be true, where does the laborer come in, 
when at the end of the week he receives ten silver dollars 
for a week^s work, and finds that his ten silver dollars will 
buy seven dollars or less of necessaries for his family — I pray 
you where is his place in the procession ? The silver barons 
are steering clear of this part of the performance. The 
laborer is not in their programme ; but just as sure as I am 
speaking to you now, when the curtain rises and the scene 
reveals in one spot the lordly owner of the mine, with his 
treasure in profusion stored around him, and behind him 
the mint, with its swiftest process fashioning and forging it 
into coin, and in another spot the miner who digs it from 
the earth, exhausted by his toil, receiving it at the fabri- 
cated and fictitious mark that his employer has placed upon 
it, then perhaps the voice of intelligent labor, at every meet- 
ing place and council where it assembles ta discuss its rights, 
will be heard in tones of thunder protesting against the 
injustice of this crime. 

THE KEMEDY. 

I have now concluded this presentation of this all-impor- 
tant subject. Of course I have only selected the salient 
points and leading features of the controversy. In an ad- 
dress of this sort nothing else would be expected. Whole 
libraries have been written upon this topic. Political 
economists and financiers in every age, and in almost 
every language, have treated and discussed this subject in 
all the varying forms and shapes in which it has ap- 
peared. I have circumscribed myself within the environ- 
ment that now surrounds it, and I earnestly appeal to my 



336 THE SILVEB QUESTION. 

countrymen calmly and dispassionately to bestow on this 
matter the consideration that it deserves. It is not a ques- 
tion for to-day or for to-morrow. It will continually recur 
antil it is finally settled. It is not, and ought not to be, a. 
party question. 

It will be a great shame to drag it into the heated 
field of political action, where the conflict of prejudice 
and the clash of passion are utterly unfitted to decide it. 
It requires a different forum. It needs the cool, unbiased 
mind, the well-informed and balanced judgment, the 
ripe experience and wisdom of those who have no per- 
sonal interest at stake, and who can meet the issue 
with a due regard for the rights of the entire country. 
There is only one remedy that the occasion suggests. I use 
the language of the advocates of the silver bills. Place gold 
and silver upon an equal basis. I agree with them in the 
conclusion of their syllogism. I do not agree with them in 
their premises or in the means through which they arrive 
at the result. I would place them upon an equal basis by 
making them intrinsically equivalent to the device that they 
bear. I would not coin a gold dollar that does not contain 
a dollar^s worth of gold, nor coin a silver dollar that does not 
contain a dollar^s worth of silver. 

Every other scheme is a fiction and a fraud. To compel 
the government to place the e'mblem of a dollar with the 
ensign of the Eepublic upon 70 cents worth of bullion, is 
worse than counterfeiting, and is an artifice and a trick 
upon the people. No such juggling with the finances of 
the country can ever succeed. I would repeal all legislation 
that sanctions the right to falsely label the coinage of the 
mint. I would respectfully suggest to the Committee on 
Coinage, Weights and Measures that a false coin is as bad 
as a false weight or a false measure. When gold is to be 
coined, let it be coined at its market value. When silver is 
to be coined, let it be coined at its market value. This is 
true and honest bimetallism. This is the gold and silver of 



THE SILVER QUESTION. 337 

the Constitution. Every other theory leads to monometal- 
km, and free and unlimited coinage of silver at the present 
•atio is monometallism in the worst degree. 

I have no lingering fear that any such measure will ever 
)ecome the settled policy of the Republic. I have too much 
ioniidence in the ^^atriotism and the intelligence of our peo- 
ple. This discussion^ though proceeding for years, has in 
;ruth but just begun. It takes time to reach the great port- 
ds of public opinion. I am willing to abide by its Judg- 
nent;, whatever it may be. That judgment has not yet 
)een formed. It is just in the process of evolution. 

There are two roads before us — the one is the path, of 
lonor and of good faith ; the other leads to the wilderness 
vhere confusion reigns and where the poisoned weed, luxn- 
•ious to the sight, but deadly to the touch, in exuberant 
growth abounds. It is the weed that springs from corrujD- 
ion ; whose fruit will wither to the taste, and whose shade 
ends forth the dampness of decay. Temptation leads us to 
the wilderness I know. Alluring hopes light up the way 
lud sj)lendid visions attract us there ; but I tell you, gen- 
tlemen, that other nations, their faith repudiated, their 
)ledges broken and their promises violated, have time and 
ime again traveled in the same direction. They have 
ibandoned the open path and taken to the wilderness, and 
oy the sad example of their fate, by the 'doom that has be- 
fallen them, by the judgment and the sentence they have 
uffered, I warn you to keep to the path that leads to the 
leld where honor blooms, and where integrity, through all 
the seasons surviving every state of transition and of change, 
bas defiantly withstood the tumult of the tempest and the 
violence of the storm. [Prolonged applause.] 

Mr. Taylor, of Illinois, was recognized. 

Mr. Speaker, no bill will come before this House of more 
importance to the people of this country than the one now 
inder consideration. If it ever should be enacted into a 
law, it win have a greater effect upon the finances of the 



338 THE SILVER QUESTION. 

country, favorable or unfavorable, than any bill that has 
ever passed Congress. 

The Fifty-first Congress passed the present law, under 
which we are purchasing 4,500,000 ounces of silver per month, 
at its market value. This was passed by a Republican 
House, a Republican Senate, and signed by a Republican 
President. The Republican party believes that this is as far 
as it is safe to go in legislating upon the silver question 
without an agreement by other nations to join us in the use 
of silver, and on this law the Republican party takes its 
stand, and is ready to go before the people of the country 
and defend it. 

I congratulate this House, and I congratulate the country, 
that we have at last uncovered the intention of the advo- 
cates of this bill. The majority report shows conclusively 
that their purpose is to place this country upon a silver 
basis, and to have it stand side by side with India, Mexico 
and China ; so that any member who supports this measure 
is no longer left in doubt as to the object of its promoters. 

There seems to be two parties who are advocating the 
passage of this measure, and their interests are directly 
opposite. First, there are the silver mine owners, whose 
object is to raise the price of silver to a parity with gold, 
and, second, the debtor class, who want cheap money in 
order that they may repudiate a portion of their just 
debts. 

I often wondered, during the discussion of this question 
in the last Congress, which of these parties was to be 
deceived ; but the majority report upon this bill leaves no 
question as to which they expect will be. 

Mr. Speaker, I shall attempt, in the discussion of this 
question, to consider it impartially, and to ascertain, so far 
as I may be able, its probable effect upon the future welfare 
and prosperity of the people of this country from the 
experiences of the past. There are many things which 
have taken place in relation to silver which should safely 



THE SILVER QUESTION. 339 

guide and assist us in any future legislation that may be 
attempted in this direction, and in a matter of so vital 
importance no step should be taken without previously con- 
sidering every fact and carefully weighing every circum- 
stance that may throw light upon the subject and enable us 
to arrive at a satisfactory conclusion. 

If this measure were properly presented to the people of 
this country, they would readily perceive its evil conse- 
quences and pernicious effects ; the devastation and ruin 
that would follow in its wake ; the complete subversion and 
overthrow of credit and trade which would result therefrom, 
and their verdict would be final and conclusive. 

One of the most intelligent advocates of free coinage on 
this floor said to me in conversation a few days ago, that he 
was beginning to have grave doubts as to the advisability of 
the passage of this measure. He said, however, that his 
constitutents were in favor of free coinage, and, while he 
had^ diligently studied the question in all its phases, he 
entertained grave apprehensions as to its wisdom ; yet he 
felt compelled to record his vote in favor of its adoption. 
To educate his constituents to the opinion that he had 
arrived at was a doubtful and uncertain task, and there was 
no recourse for him save only to bow to the will of his people 
and vote for the passage of the bill. 

As I have said before, it is absolutely necessary to consider 
the effect of the legislation upon this subject in the past, to 
be able to form an intelligent opinion as to whether or not 
we can maintain the coinage of silver and gold at the ratio 
of 16 to 1 without the cooperation of other countries. 

The first act passed for the coinage of gold and silver, 
and fixing the ratio at which they should be coined, was in 
1792, and it was placed at one grain of gold to 15 grains of 
silver. This was maintained until 1834. In the meantime, 
about all the gold went out of circulation in this country, 
for at that ratio gold was worth a premium over silver. It 
commenced to disappear in 1811 or 1812, and the amount 



340 THE SILVER QUESTION, 

delivered at the mints for coinage decreased until 1816, 
when it ceased altogether. As rapidly as the gold was 
issued from the mints it was shipped abroad and sold, and 
after 1816 the owners of this metal did not incur the delay 
and expense of presenting it for coinage, but sent it abroad 
in bars. The reason of this is readily apparent, for gold 
was at a premium of 2 per cent, over silver, and, with that 
difference, it would not circulate with silver. 

In 1834 another act was passed decreasing the amount of 
metal to be coined into a gold dollar and increasing the 
ratio to 16 to 1. The United States had coined, at large 
expense, ^j11,825,890 of gold, and none of these coins could 
be seen ; all were exported. By the coinage act of 1834 the 
silver dollar was more valuable than the gold dollar, and in 
a few years the latter went out of circulation. It would not 
circulate with a dollar that had less bullion value. This 
continued until 1873, when the premium on a silver dollar 
was about 3 per cent., and there was not one dollar in cir- 
culation ; all had gone abroad. If gold would not circulate 
in this country, as is shown by past experience, when it was 
only 2 per cent, above silver, and silver would not circulate 
when it was 3 per cent, above gold, but both went out of 
circulation and were shipped to Europe with this small pre- 
mium, how can we expect silver to circulate with gold when 
gold is about 30 per cent, premium, as under this bill ? It 
is not possible that any gentleman who studies the past and 
is capable of comprehending any elementary financial prob- 
lem, can arrive at any other conclusion than if this bill 
remonetizing silver should become a law, it would at the 
same time demontize gold. 

The majority report tells us that gold will not go out of 
circulation if this bill should become a law, but that both 
gold and silver will circulate side by side. They do not have 
to go to Europe to learn the fallacy of this statement. AVe 
can learn it simply by crossing the line into Mexico, where 
they have free coinage of gold and silver, but as the price 



THE SILVER QUESTION, 341 

of silver depreciated in tlie markets of the world the gold 
disappeared, and not one gold dollar is seen now in circula- 
tion in Mexico, but all have been sold abroad ; and if the gold 
should go out of circulation in this country, it would mean 
the withdrawal of between six hundred and seven hundred 
millions of money now in circulation. 

Gold would go abroad, not to buy silver to take its place 
in this country, but, as it went abroad when the Baring 
Brothers, of London, failed, to pay for our bonds that are 
held in Europe. The ink would not be dry upon the Pres- 
ident's signiture to this bill before our bonds would start 
from the other side by the millions of dollars, and in that 
way they would take from this country every dollar of gold 
that is in it, as the people on the other side of the water 
would lose confidence in our financiering, and would want 
to realize on the indebtedness they held as early as possible. 
This bill, therefore, instead of adding to the circulation and 
giving us more money, would decrease it to the extent of the 
gold now held in this country, and we would have that much 
less money. 

The stagnation and depression that would follow from 
this will be readily appreciated when it is remembered that 
the withdrawal of seventy-five millions last year nearly 
resulted in a panic. Let six or seven hundred millions be 
withdrawn from circulation ; how can we replace it ? We 
could not replace it with silver ; for if we were on a silver 
basis and paying silver dollars for silver bullion, none would 
come here from abroad, any more than it goes to Mexico. 
No silver is imported into Mexico, for the reason that the 
silver owners can obtain nothing but silver for it. We 
would be exactly in the same condition. 

It will be seen, then, that the statement made by the 
majority in their report, that a silver dollar cannot fall below 
the value which the government gives it at the mint, is not 
borne out by the facts. It is true that it would not fall below 
that if the value of the silver dollar was maintained by the 



342 THE SILVEB QUESTION. 

government redeeming it in gold when presented. This, 
however, the free-coinage advocates do not ask or expect, 
as they say in their report that the silver brought to the 
mint would be coined into standard dollars, and these dol- 
lars returned to the people who brought the silver, or, if they 
took Treasury notes and presented them instead, they would 
be redeemed in silver dollars. It will, therefore, be seen 
that the stamp of the government upon the bullion would 
give it no increased value. Of course, under this bill it 
would be a legal tender, and the debtor could use it to 
repudiate a portion of his debts. The very moment it 
crosses the borders of the United States the stamp upon it 
gives no value. It becomes bullion, and has to take its place 
with other bullion in the markets of the world, and no law 
that we can pass will increasQ its bullion value. 

The total amount of silver in the world, as estimated by 
the Director of the Mint, is 13,939,578,000, and the amount 
held in this country is 1542,078,000. ]^ot one dollar of 
this entire amount of the silver of the world is worth over 
91 cents an ounce, or will sell in any market of the world 
for over that amount ; so, in order to bring silver to a parity 
with gold, we will not only be compelled to raise the price 
of silver in this country about 30 per cent., but we would be 
compelled to raise the price of the 13,397,500,000 of silver 
held by the remainder of the world. I know this country 
is great. There is no gentleman upon this floor who has 
more confidence in it than I have. This undertaking, how- 
ever, is too great ; it would fail. 

During the discussion upon the law that was passed by 
the Fifty-first Congress, some of the free-coinage advocates 
admitted that it would have a tendency to advance the price 
of silver ; others predicted that it would rise in value to 
129J. Still, their great objection was that silver was left as 
a mere commodity. The act of 1891 provided that there 
should be coined 124,000,000 worth of silver, which has 
been done. The bill under consideration does not make it 



THE SILVER QUESTION. 343 

compulsory to coin one dollar, and, if it were enacted into 
a law, not one doUar Avould ever be coined nnder it. The 
present bill is not so much a free-coinage scheme as it is a 
silver-purchasing one, and the great difference between it 
and the act of 1891 is that under the latter the government 
is compelled to purchase the bullion at the market value, 
which is about 91 cents an ounce, while under this bill the 
government must purchase it at the fixed price of 129^ 
cents, and thus pay nearly 40 cents more per ounce to the 
silver-miner than its actual market value. 

If it should be enacted into a law and operate in the man- 
ner which the majority in their report say it would, and we 
should receive no more silver than we are now receiving, and 
for which we are paying $48,000,000 a year, under this bill 
we would be compelled to pay $70,000,000 (that is, when we 
pay $1.29 per ounce for the silver which is only commanding 
91 cents per ounce in the markets of the world) ; thus making 
a subsidy to the rich mine-owner of $22,000,000 annually, 
'or which we receive nothing. It gives your and my note, 
which we will be compelled to pay some day, and receives 
nothing in return. 

If this is good financiering, I am learning new lessons in 
finance. If this is not a subsidy in its broadest sense, will 
some person tell me what it is ? In the case of the subsidy 
to the merchant marine, the Postmaster-General reports 
that it will cost about eight millions annually ; and for this 
we expect to build up a merchant marine that will carry our 
own merchandise in our ships, and will open up a line of 
'rade to the American merchant that he has been 
lebarred from. 

The most reliable statistics, showing the cost of production 
)f silver, estimate it at about 50 cents per ounce ; so it will 
)e seen that at the price at which silver is now sold the mine- 
nvner will make a greater profit on his article than any other 
♦reducer in the United States. 

An additional advantage that the silver miner would 



344 THE SILVEB QUESTION. 

derive from the passage of this bill is this^ that he would be 
able to pay his labor with this cheap money, and as about 
80 per cent, of the cost of mining is labor, it would be a 
great saving to him. The laborer, to whom he is paying 
$3 a day now, would be paid $2.10 after the passage of this 
bill, which would bring the cost of mining the silver down 
from about 50 cents to about 35 cents an ounce. 

No gentleman ever makes a speech in favor of the free 
coinage of silver without denouncing violently the theft 
that was committed in 1873 when silver was demonetized. 
Some of those who participated in that discussion, and who 
voted for the bill, have risen in their places and told the 
country that they did not understand what they were 
voting for. 

Every rational person is presumed to comprehend the 
natural and probable consequences of his own acts. It 
appears, however, that they did not, or at least profess not. 
If I should support a measure in this House, and should 
discover afterwards that my constituents were so universally 
opposed to it that it became necessary for me to plead the 
baby act, or to resign my seat, I would not be long in reach- 
ing a determination what to do. There would be a vacancy 
in the First Illinois district. 

Let us see what are the facts in relation to this so-called 
theft, about which there have been so loud complaint and 
so earnest remonstrance. The first bill was presented to the 
Senate April 25, 1870, and it omitted the coinage of the 
silver dollar. Copies of this bill Avere distributed through- 
out the length and breadth of the United States, and the 
opinions and comments of the leading financiers were in- 
vited. Some of these experts in their answers stated to the 
Senate that it would demonetize the silver dollar. 

When the bill was under consideration here the House 
called for these answers, and they were considered by it. 
The bill first passed the Senate in 1871, and from that time 
until it was finally enacted into law, in 1873, it was before 




EX-GOV. CAMPBELL. 



THE SILVEB QUESTION. 345 

both Houses in five- different sessions, and commented npon 
in the leading journals of the country and by the leading 
financiers. It was printed thirteen times, and the debate 
upon it occupies about 150 pages of the Congressional 
Globe, and yet gentlemen who participated in that discus- 
sion and who voted for its passage rise in their places and 
tell us they did not know what it contained or what was its 
purport. I leave the truth of these assertions to be passed 
upon by the great jury of the American people. 

The facts are that in 1873 a silver dollar was at a premium 
of about 3 per cent, over gold, yet not a dollar was being 
coined. It had demonetized itself, as gold would if this 
measure should become a law. For about thirty years pre- 
ceding that time the silver in the markets of the world had 
never been lower than $1.30^:, and the silver-producing 
states were entirely indifferent to the passage of that law, as 
the coinage of silver gave it no value whatever, as the value 
was the market value of the world, as it still will be if this 
bill should ever become a law. With the discovery of large 
deposits of silver, however, it commenced to fall, and in 
1877 it was down to $1.12 an ounce. Then comes the cry 
of the silver theft of 1873. Prior to 1873 only a little over 
eight millions of silver had been coined. From that time 
to the present there have been coined 1411,543,740, and of 
this latter amount three hundred and fifty millions are still 
in the Treasury, together with over fifty millions of bullion. 
This is the reason of the decrease in the price of silver. 

It is claimed by the majority of the committee that but 
little silver would come to this country under this act. I 
agree with them in this, if, as they contemplate, this 
country is to be put on a silver basis ; and I agree with 
them that there would be no other course for the govern- 
ment to pursue, if this bill should become a law, than put 
this country on a silver basis, as it would not be possible for 
us to buy all the silver that would be presented if we paid 
for it in gold. Therefore we would take our place by the 



346 THE SILVER QUESTION. 

side of the silver countries of the world. Is the prosperity 
of the people of Chinaj, India and Mexico so great that we 
should desire to place ourselves with them ? I think the 
universal answer would be no. India and China are the 
most destitute countries in the world. There is no country 
where the inhabitants are poorer and more degraded, and 
Mexico is not far behind. How can a party advocate the 
enactment of such, a law, the ultimate effect of which will 
be to retard the rapid growth and progress of the nation, 
to produce depression and discontent, and to reduce the 
country from the high and lofty plane of unequaled credit 
and prosperity to the chaotic and bankrupt condition of the 
degraded silver countries of the globe ? 

As an illustration of the manner in which the silver 
standard affects India, I will quote the answers made by 
Mr. Francis G. Newlands, the head of the silver lobby here, 
the gentleman who represents the interests of the silver- 
miners before Congress, and who has been in attendance 
upon its sessions and advocating the free coinage of silver 
for several years, in reply to certain questions propounded 
by Mr. Williams, of Massachusetts, during a hearing before 
the Committee on Coinage, Weights and Measures : 

Mr. Williams. This is true, is it not — and is universallj claimed by gen- 
tlemen who are interested in the free coinage of silver — that that which India 
owes the rest of the world costs them more to pay to-day than it ever did 
before ? 

Mr. l^ewlands. V^hen she makes the exchange in gold. 

Mr. Williams. She has to pay her debts in gold, practically, does she not ? 

Mr. Newlands. Yes, sir. 

Mr. Williams. So that to that extent yon certainly will admit that the sil- 
ver standard has injured her ? 

Mr. ^N'ewlands. In the relations existing between the Indian government 
and the British government the Indian government has a right to complain 
of the demonetization of silver, because when she pays England in gold she 
has to turn her silver into bullion and sell it at the gold price, and thereby 
loses in the transaction. I do not think she has any reason to complain of 
the silver standard. What she has a right to complain of is the demonetiza- 
tion of silver, which has injured its bullion value. 

Mr. Williams. But she has to turn her rupees into bullion in order to pay 
England,' and to sell that bullion at a gold price ? 



THE SILVER QUESTION. 347 

Mr. Newlands. Yes, sir; sell that bullion at a gold price. 

Mr. Williams. I will ask you this question : When India pajs England, 
you saj she turns her rupees into bullion ? 

Mr. Newlands. Yes. 

Mr. Williams. What is that for ? 

Mr. Newlands. Because England demands gold. 

Mr. Williams. Can she not buy gold with rupees, just as well as she can 
with bullion ? 

Mr. Newlands. I suppose she can, with rupees at their bullion value. 

Mr. Williams. Does India send any silver to London with which to pay 
her debts ? 

Mr. Newlands. Really, I cannot say; I presume she does. If she does, 

she sends it at its gold value. But I imagine she does not send any rupees. 

Of course we could maintain the free coinage of silver if 
the country were placed on a silver basis, but we could not 
maintain it on a gold and silver basis. The amount of the 
silver in the world is estimated at ajbout 14,000,000,000. 
Mexico, by our side, lies ready with vast possessions of 
silver, which they would be very glad to exchange with us 
for gold at 11.29, and is exchanging some of it now at 91, 
although they have free coinage. France alone has seven 
hundred millions of silver, two hundred and fifty millions 
of which are lying in the Bank of France that cannot be 
used, and if we should attempt to exchange gold for silver, 
we would receive that amount at once. 

The advocates of free coinage say that that would not 
come to this country even if we should pay for it with gold, 
for the simple reason that they would have to stand a loss 
of 2 or 3 per cent. Supposing France should open her 
mints for the free coinage of silver and advertise that they 
were ready to take all the bullion that was offered and pay 
for it in gold at the rate of 16 to 1, how long would it take 
to send all the silver in this country to France and exchange 
it for gold ? The large amount of silver lying in the vaults 
of France cannot now be sold at a higher rate than 91 cents 
an ounce ; that is as much as they can obtain for it. It 
cannot be possible that any gentleman would assume for a 
moment, under these circumstances, that if a market were 
opened in which they could obtain 11.29 for silver, that it 



348 THE SILVER QUESTION. 

would not go upon the first ship. It is hardly necessary to 
discuse this phase of the question, as it is too self-evident, 
and as the advocates of this measure do not expect to raise 
the value of silver, but they expect to cheapen money in 
circulation in this country. 

The people of this country who would derive the most 
. advantage from the passage of this bill are the debtors, and 
they will only be temporarily benefited. Under it they will 
be enabled to repudiate about 30 per cent, of their just 
debts. What excuse can any party offer for its advocacy 
and support of so iniquitous a measure, which is designed 
to repudiate honest debts and defraud creditors ? 

It must not be forgotten that for every debtor there is a 
corresponding creditor, and in legislating for the benefit of 
one you are injuring the other. It must also be remembered 
that the creditors of this country are not the wealthy men, 
for nearly all wealthy men are borrowers of money. The 
lenders are the commercial and the savings banks, and the 
deposits contained therein belong to and are the savings of 
small dealers. 

It is not the money of the banks, but they act merely as 
the agents of the depositors to receive their money and to 
loan it to some other person who may need it. These banks 
contain the money of the old, the widows, and the orj^hans, 
and the wage-earners, and should this bill be enacted into a 
law and enable the debtor to repudiate a portion of his just 
debt, they would be the greater sufferers, and not the banks. 
There are also the pensioners of the country, whose pensions 
would be reduced about 50 per cent. 

Can the Democratic party or any other party afford to go 
before this country on such a measure ? Do you dare en- 
graft it into your platform ? I say not, and you will learn 
not. 

The majority say that by arbitrarily fixing the price of 
silver at $1.29 per ounce, when the market value is only 91 
cents per ounce, we will raise the price of farm products 12 



THE SILVER QUESTION. 349 

or 15 per cent. Why stop here ? AVhy not make an ounce 
of silver, valued at 91 cents, equal to an ounce of gold, the 
market value of which is 120.67 per ounce, and thus in- 
crease the price of the farmer^s product 500 or 600 per cent. ; 
so that a bushel of wheat, which now commands $1, would 
be sold for 16 ? The principle is the same, and if we can 
do one, we most certainly should do the other. The absurd- 
ity of this proposition is too obvious to bear comment ; it is 
almost too ridiculous to be mentioned ; yet this is only one 
of the very many wild statements that are made to the 
people of this country to delude and ensnare them into the 
support of the free-coinage schemes. 

The theory of the advocates of free coinage is that when 
money becomes cheaper men will become wealthier ; that is, 
as money goes down everything else goes up. I do not 
doubt but that there are gentlemen on the other side of the 
House who have paid $100 in Confederate money for a din- 
ner. This was no evidence that dinners were going up, as 
any one could have bought that same dinner with a gold 
dollar. It was simply an evidence of the fact that money 
was going down. 

It is claimed by the advocates of this measure that the 
Indian farmer, because his country is on a silver basis, 
obtains a great advantage over the farmer of this country. 
"It has been said that a bushel of wheat from the United 
States sold in the London market brings 11.10, and the 
same bushel of wheat from India realizes $1.30. This is a 
pure fallacy, not borne out by the facts, nor is it possible to 
be true. The American is paid for his wheat in gold, but 
the Indian is paid for his wheat either in gold, and then 
buys silver, as his country is on a silver basis, or is paid in 
silver. 

The American can purchase equally as much silver for 
the gold that he receivse for his bushel of wheat as the 
Indian can. It will, therefore, be readily seen that the 



350 THE SILVER QUESTION. 

Indian receives no more for his wheat in this country than 
the American receives for it here. 

It is claimed by the advocates of this bill that wheat in 
this country goes down as silver goes down. There is no 
foundation whatever for such a statement. When there is 
an overproduction of wheat the price goes down ; when 
there is a scarcity the price goes up. The price depends 
entirely upon the quantity produced;, and the demand that is 
made therefor. The improved facilities for growing wheat 
have decreased the cost of production in the last twenty 
years. Will any gentleman claim that the low price of 
cotton this year was caused by the low price of silver ? Last 
year there were 1,500^,000 more bales of cotton grown than 
ever before in this country. This broke the market, and 
not the low price of silver. The low price of cotton was 
the direct result of overproduction, and no other cause can 
be assigned for it. 

One of the best speeches that I have heard made in this 
House against free coinage, and which should be most con- 
vincing, was made by the gentleman from Arizona [Mr. 
Smith] on the 16th of this month, when he called up for 
consideration House bill No. 5,499, which authorized the 
territory of Arizona to fund their debt and issue a 5 per 
cent, bond payable in gold. The gentleman from Kansas 
[Mr. Otis] asked him. to strike out "gold" and insert 
"legal-tender money of the United States." The gentle- 
man from Arizona [Mr. Smith] replied that that was 
exactly the reason which had prevented the territory from 
selling these bonds. He said : 

I have tried to float this debt at a reasonable rate of interest, and I am satis- 
fied with that provision in the bill ; it cannot bo done at less than 7 to 10 per 
cent. With this provision in the bill, the bonds can be floated at 5 per cent. 
This instance shows the injurious consequences that will 
follow if this bill should become a law. It will affect indi- 
viduals in their private transactions the same as it affects 
Arizona in floating these bonds. 



THE SILVER QUESTION. 351 

I yield twenty minutes to my colleague from Illinois [Mr. 
Hopkins]. 

Mr. Hopkins, of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, the majority 
report of the Committee on Coinage, Weights and Measures, 
which accompanies the bill now under consideration, in 
some respects is a remarkable and interesting document — 
remarkable as much for what it does not say as for what is 
contained in the report ; and interesting from the fact that 
the chairman of the committee who submitted the report in 
every page of the same appears to be conscious that he is 
seeking to secure legislation in this House which is opposed 
by a large number of intelligent and patriotic members in 
his own party. 

No person who reads the report can gather any substan- 
tial arguments from it which demonstrate that the people 
of this country are to be in any manner benefited by the 
free and unlimited coinage of silver. The great effort of 
the chairman of the committee seems to have been in the 
preparation of the report to meet, as far as he was able, some 
of the strong and overpowering objections which exist 
to-day against the legislation favored in this bill. 

The Constitution of the United States j^rovides that Con- 
gress shall have the power to coin money, regulate the 
value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of 
weights and measures. This requirement has from the 
earliest days of our constitutional government imposed a 
grave and responsible duty upon Congress. I shall not 
attempt to trace in detail the history of legislation upon 
this subject. Money is of no value or use excepting for 
three purposes — as a measure of value of all products, as a 
medium of exchange for the same, and as a standard of 
deferred payments in matters of commercial credit. 

It is unncecesary for me, in the discussion of this bill, to 
refer to the primitive methods used by the people of the 
various nations of the earth in exchanging their products 
of the soil and property owned and controlled by them. 



352 THE SILVER QUESTION. 

That history, in a word, has demonstrated, in every 
instance, that as the people advanced in civilization they 
required and nsed some article as a measure of the value of 
all other articles, and as a medium of exchange in their 
commercial transactions. The higher the civilization, and 
the more complex the commercial relations - became, the 
more necessary was it that this medium of exchange should 
not only possess the quality of a measure of values, but that 
it should also serve the purposes of a standard of deferred 
payments in matters of credit. 

Barter is among the earliest and most primitive forms of 
commerce. Lead, iron, copper, and other metals have been 
used by the various nations at different stages of their civil- 
ization, commercially, but I think that all who pay me the 
honor of their attention will agree that what are known as 
the precious metals, viz., gold and silver, have come to be 
regarded by the nations of the earth as the metals least 
variable in their value, and the best calculated to subserve 
these important purposes in all commercial and business 
transactions. 

The gold dollar is our unit of value, and since 1853 gold 
has been the money metal of this country, and all values 
have been determined by it, all matters of exchange have 
been controlled by it, and all questions of deferred payments 
in commercial credits have been settled by its standards. 

What is now sought by the chairman of the Committee on 
Coinage, Weights and Measures, and by those who sympa- 
thize with him, is to extend to silver the same power which 
is exercised by gold, and the same privilege of free and un- 
limited coinage at a standard of 412-2- gi'ains for a dollar. 
Whenever this question is discussed by the friends of the 
bill, including the chairman of the Committee on Coinage, 
Weights and Measures, much stress is placed upon the fact 
that silver was formally demonetized in 1873, and the 
lamentations of the friends of silver have been loud and 
long, and no epithet has been too severe and no denuucia- 



THE SILVER QUESTION. 353 

tion too strong to be hurled at the heads of the members of 
the House and the senators who permitted such legislation 
to be enacted into law. 

It was not my fortune to be a member of this House or to 
hold any public or ofl&cial position at. that time, but for the 
purposes of this discussion it is not necessary for me to 
either affirm or deny the various charges which are made as 
to the motives which prompted the legislation that demone- 
tized silver. If it were a crime, as the friends of free silver 
now contend, and if it did enhance the value of gold coin 
50 per cent., as they all charge, I maintain, Mr. Speaker, 
that that is no reason why we should at this time remonetize 
that metal. The conditions of our country and our com- 
merce are adjusted to the gold standard, and any change of 
that measure of value, medium of exchange, and standard 
of deferred payments, will work untold hardships upon the 
farmers and laboring classes of this country, and will 
unsettle business to such an extent that trade will be 
practically paralyzed. 

I know no greater calamity, Mr. Speaker, which could 
befall this country than that this bill, in its present form, 
should be enacted into a law ; but before I discuss this 
branch of the subject I desire, Mr. Speaker, to take issue 
with some of the charges that are made by the friends of 
free silver as to its influence uj)on trade and legislation in 
this country prior to 1873. As I have stated already, gold 
and silver, by Constitutional enactment, were made the 
money metals of this country, but it was left to Congress 
to regulate the value and fix the standard of weights and 
measures. The first legislation that we had upon the sub- 
ject that it is important or necessary to consider in connec- 
tion with this bill was had on the 2d of April, 1792, where 
the ratio between the pure metals in our coins was fixed at 
1 to 15 (1 ounce of gold being the equivalent of 15 ounces 
of silver), and the free and unlimited coinage accorded to 
both metals, with full legal-tender power. 



354 THE SILVER QUESTION. 

This was the mint ratio^, and when the metals were coined 
into money under that ratio 371i grains of pure silver 
coined into a silver dollar was the equivalent for all com- 
mercial purposes of 24f grains of pure gold coined into a 
gold dollar. Soon after this legislation, however, it was 
discovered that the two metals would not travel in company. 
Full legal tender was granted to both coins, but a few years 
showed to the commercial world that the market value of 
gold and silver bullion differed from its minted value. 
Fifteen ounces of silver under the legislation would pur- 
chase 1 ounce of gold at the mints, but in the market it 
required 16 ounces of silver to be the equivalent of 1 ounce 
of gold. 

It thus early became apparent that the ratios fixed by 
legislation between the two metals had become erroneous, 
and that speculators in the metals could make a profit of 1 
ounce of silver for every 16 ounces taken to the mint and 
exchanged for gold after the same were coined into money. 
The result was, as shown by the history of this period, that 
gold was practically driven out of the market, and that our 
metal of exchange and standard of payments in circulation 
was silver. In other words, the business of that period was 
transacted on a silver basis. Indeed, to such an extent did 
this go on that in 1805 President Jefferson, who was a be- 
liever in gold as a money metal, without any authority of 
law, and without any legislation on the subject whatever, 
by an arbitrary and peremptory order prohibited the further 
coinage of silver dollars at the mints of this country, and 
that order was observed at the mints during all the years up 
to the time of the readjustment of the ratios of the two 
mefcals under the leadership of Senator Benton, of Missouri, 
in 1834. 

During this same period France, Germany, and, in fact, 
all the leading nations of the earth, excepting England, 
transacted their business on a silver baeis, and the incon- 



THE SILVER QUESTION. 355 

veniences and dangers of a silver standard under existing 
conditions were then unknown. 

One of the most interesting debates that was ever 
carried on in the halls of Congress was had over this 
very question at the time of the change of the ratio of 
the two metals. AYhen they were fixed at 16 ounces of 
silver to 1 ounce of gold, in 1834, the charge was 
openly made by Senator Benton, who was a great friend of 
gold, that the ratio of 15 parts of silver to 1 part of 
gold, fixed under the recommendations of Hamilton in 1792, 
was for the purpose of discrediting the yellow metal. He 
was as eloquent and as zealous for legislation which should 
restore the gold dollar to the people of this country — the 
dollar, as he claimed, of his daddies — as the distinguished 
gentleman from Missouri [Mr. Bland] is in his efforts to 
remonetize the silver dollar of 1792, which he contends was 
demonetized in 1873. 

The law which demonetized silver was but a legal recog- 
nition of what had been an admitted fact for more than a 
quarter of a century prior to 1873. The American silver 
dollar referred to in the report of the cominittee was prac- 
tically an unknown quantity in all business transactions. 
Silver was used to a certain extent as a subsidiary coin, but 
only for such purposes, gold being the standard of value and 
the medium of exchange for all business or commercial trans- 
actions. The discovery of gold in California, Australia 
and Eussia produced a most marked effect in the monetary 
history of all modern nations which had specie circulation. 
From 1851 to 1875, through the sources I have here indic- 
ated, $3,317,625,000 of gold was produced from the mines 
and put in circulation. 

More gold was mined and used for money purposes in that 
short period than the world had produced for 350 years prior to 
that time. This gold supplanted silver as a money metal in all 
the leading nations. Germany transacted her business on a 
silver basis up to 1871, when she then demonetized silver and 



356 THE SILVER QUESTION. 

made gold lier money standard. England, long prior to 
this time, had become a gold-standard country, and, in 
fact, following 1871, one nation after another adopted the 
gold standard, until to-day there is no leading country in 
Europe that authorizes the free and unlimited coinage of 
silver. All of our foreign exchanges are settled upon the 
gold basis. The silver dollar which is in circulation in this 
country and is received by our citizens as a full legal tender 
in transactions abroad, is held only at its bullion value, 
which entails a loss in such transactions of from 25 to 30 
per cent, from the minted value. 

]^ow, Mr. S23eaker, why is it that we find certain members 
of this Ilouse so clamorous for the passage of this bill and 
the recognition of silver as a money metal with full legal- 
tender j)ower ? The discussion of this question should be 
carried on a plane above party politics. It is a great eco- 
nomic and financial question, and one which should receive 
the dispassionate discussion which belongs to such subjects. 
The interests of the people, regardless of party politics, 
will be materially affected by the passage or rejection 
of this bill. Its influence will be felt by the laborer 
in his cabin as well as the millionaire in his mansion. 
No man is too humble to escape the baneful effects which 
would follow the enactment of this proposed legislation into 
law. It will not do, therefore, for the friends of free and 
unlimited coinage of silver to obscure the practical question 
before the American people by epithets hurled at those who 
oppose the passage of this bill, or indulge in invectives and 
vituperation against all who participated in the legislation 
in 1873 and subsequent thereto, which resulted in the 
demonetization of this metal. 

As I stated earlier in my remarks, the question of re- 
monetizing silver in 1892 is a very different question than 
the one which faced the people of this country in 1873, 
when that metal was debased and deprived of its money 
character. No friend of silver legislation can demonstrate 



THE SILVEB QUESTION. 357 

to the members of this House or prove to the intelligent 
public in this country that the remonetizing of silver will 
be of any benefit to the public or the people generally. 
There are two classes of people who will be benefited, and 
two only, as I contend, and those are the silver-mine owners 
and the bullion holders and speculators in silver. The agita- 
tion of this subject has been brought about by the manipula- 
tion of the silver-mine owners and silver speculators in this 
country. Talk has been indulged in that it is in the inter- 
est of the farmers of the west, but I defy the chairman of 
this committee, or any of his party associates, to show by any 
tangible arguments or facts that the farmers or the laborers 
are to be in any manner benefited if this bill becomes a law. 

Why, Mr. Speaker, during the last session of the Fifty- 
first Congress, when the committee which was appointed by 
the Speaker to investigate the question as to whether mem- 
bers of Congress had speculated in silver during the consid- 
eration of the silver act of 1890, it was shown that a literary 
bureau had been established here in Washington by some of 
the leading silver-mine owners of the west, and that they 
had prepared petitions and had them sent to the farmer 
organizations and the laborers in the western country, to 
be signed by them and forwarded to Congress, praying for 
free and unlimited coinage of silver, and in order to induce 
this class of our citizens to forward such petitions, agents 
were hired and sent out to discuss the silver side of this 
question, and circulars and pamphlets were scattered broad- 
cast over the land to create a sentiment in favor of the free 
and unlimited coinage of silver. 

This was not so much, Mr. Speaker, for the purpose of 
benefiting the j)eople of this country as to add to the wealth 
of those great silver-mine owners and the men who speculate 
in that commodity. The stock arguments that are used by 
them and their followers are familiar to the members of this 
Hou-se. The principal one is that we need more money in 
circulation, and that if we have the free and unlimited coin- 



358 THE SILVER QUESTION. 

age of silver, we would add so much more to the money 
stock in circulation in this country. The poor crops, which 
the farmers of the west and northwest have had for three 
or four years prior to the present season, have entailed a 
degree of hardship and distress upon them that has made 
them ready listeners to any argument or plans which would 
relieve them from their then existing necessities, and these 
shrewd and adroit silver agents have 2)layed upon their pas- 
sions and prejudices by their calamity talk until they have 
in some localities led them to believe that all of the evils of 
their present condition are traceable directly to the demon- 
etization of silver, and that to remonetize that metal is all 
that is necessary to make them prosperous farmers and give 
them happy homes. A careful examination of the amount 
of money in circulation at the present time, as compared 
with other periods in the history of our country, will 
demonstrate that we have more money in circulation per 
capita at the present day than we have had since the foun- 
dation of the government. ^ 

I have taken some pains to examine the reports of the 
Secretary of the Treasury, and I have gleaned therefrom 
many interesting facts which Avill aid the proper considera- 
tion of this per capita question. In 1860 the population of 
the United States was 31,500,000. Our general money 
stock aggregated $442,000,000, and of that sum 1435,000,- 
000 were in circulation. This, you will see, gave us only 
$15.85 per capita of money that was in circulation. Eight- 
een hundred and sixty was, you will remember, a prosperous 
business year. There was no complaint at that time that there 
was not money enough in circulation to answer all business 
and commercial purposes. In October, 1870, the money, 
including gold, subsidiary silver, and fractional currency, 
gold and silver certificates. Treasury notes, and bank notes, 
aggregated $770,312,000. This amount gave a per capita 
circulation of $19.97 in 1870. 

In 1880 the money in circulation in this country, includ- 



THE SILVEB QUESTION. 359 

ing, as I have in my estimate of 1870, the gold coin, stand- 
ard silver dollars, snhsidary silver, gold certificates, silver 
certificates. Treasury notes. United States notes, and 
national-bank notes, $1,022,033,685. This made a per 
capita circulation in 1880 of 120.37. I have with me a 
statement from the Treasury Department showing the 
amount of gold and silver coins and certificates, United 
States notes, and national-bank notes in circulation March 
1, 1892, which aggregates $1,609,558,892. The population 
of the United States March 1, 1892, is estimated at 65,049,- 
000. This makes a j)er capita circulation on the first day 
of the month of $24. 74 the highest per capita circulation 
that we have had since the adoption of our constitutional 
government. 

Indeed, Mr. Speaker, this is a higher per capita circula- 
tion than either England or Germany has. The per capita 
circulation in England is $18.60, and in Germany is only 
about $18. While England has more wealth per capita 
than we have in America, her money stock in circulation 
per capita is decidedly less, as these figures show. When- 
ever this question is discussed "the friends of free and 
unlimited coinage of silver refer to France and claim that 
she has over $44 per capita of money in circulation, and 
point to the prosperity of her people as a result of this large 
amount of currency in circulation. Nothing could be more 
fallacious or misleading so far as applied to conditions 
existing in this country. Every well-informed and intelli- 
gent American citizen understands that the banking system 
of Erance is entirely different from what we have in Amer- 
ica, and that in the provinces, instead of using banks as we 
do in all the cities and villages throughout the Union, to 
transact their business, the French peasants carry their 
money about their persons or hoard it away in their houses. 

I remember of hearing a statement of a gentleman of 
wealth and refinement who had passed many years in 
France, saying that during his entire residence there, Avhicli 



360 THE SILVER QUESTION. 

extended over a period of eight or ten years, he never saw a 
check, draft, or bill of exchange. The money that was 
nsed by the French people in their business transactions 
was carried about by them, and the foreigners who became 
temporary residents there were compelled by necessity to 
adopt their primitive commercial methods. The business 
of this country is conducted largely upon the credit system. 
An estimate recently made made by the Treasury Depart- 
ment from statistics gathered from the various banks of the 
country, showed that nearly or quite 94 per cent, of all of the 
business and commercial transactions of this country are 
conducted on the credit system, by the use of checks, drafts, 
and bills of exchange, and that there is barely 6 per cent, 
of the business that is done by the actual use and transfer 
of money from buyer to seller. 

This system of checks, or credit system, has grown rapidly 
and enormously in this country, and has served a wonder- 
fully beneficial purpose in the expansion of business and 
trade and in the development of our western territories. 
The amount of money in circulation per capita does not 
necessarily or logically indicate the wealth of the country or 
the prosperity of the people. As an illustration of this 
statement, I desire to call to the attention of the members 
of the House the condition of the Argentine Republic a little 
over a year ago. That republic, for a number of years 
prior to its financial collapse, was controlled in its fiscal and 
financial affairs by a set of statesmen of the character and 
caliber of those who advocate here the free and unlimited 
coinage of silver. 

In the city of Buenos Ayres an inflation of the currency 
was tried, and temporarily resulted in the enhancement of 
prices and a rapid exchange of jDroperties. This example, 
it was believed by the statesmen of that country, could be 
extended through the entire republic, and that great good 
would result tlierefrom. The result was that the country 
w^as inflated to the extent that the circulating medium 



THE SILVER QUESTION. 361 

aggregated $100 per capita,, and when it reached that point 
the colla^^se came and took witli it Baring Bros., of Eng- 
land, and nearly precipitated a financial crisis throughout 
the entire financial world. No man can say just how many 
dollars per capita should be in circulation in this country, 
or, in fact, in any other, to produce and maintain a healthy 
condition of affairs, commercially and financially. It can 
only be reached by approximation, and the best thinkers 
and ablest writers upon this subject believe that the United 
States has already reached the point where the circulating 
medium per capita is as great as the necessity of the country 
demands. 

The figures that I have given show that the circulating 
medium has increased in volume much more rapidly than 
the increase in population. It is also a well-known fact in 
business and commercial circles that the multiplication of 
state and national banks throughout the country has largely 
increased the credit system of the country and minimized 
the use of money in trade and business. For a period of 
nearly twenty years, commencing with 1860, the difference 
between our total money stock and the money in circulation 
rarely exceeded 10 per cent. During the last twelve years 
this difference has been widening, nntil it is now between 
35 per cent, and 40 per cent. For example, to bring this 
more clearly to the minds of the members of the House : 
In my illustration some time ago, as to the general money 
stock of this country, on the 1st of March, 1892, as I have 
shown, the money in circnlation was $1,609,558,892. The 
general stock of money coined or issued at that date aggre- 
gated 12,236,494,518, leaving, as you will see, a balance of 
money unused out of the general money stock of 1626,935,- 
626. By close students of finance, these figures indicate 
that the general money stock in this country is greater now 
than the trade or commerce of the country demands, and 
that an increase of the money metal would simply pile it up 
in the Treasury to be unused by the people. The rate of 



362 THE SILVER QUESTION. 

of interest paid by debtor classes on money borrowed has 
been decreasing year by year for the last quarter of a 
century. 

In Illinois, for example, money that fifteen or twenty 
years ago would command 10 per cent, can be readily bor- 
rowed to-day on good security for 6 per cent. ; the same finan- 
cial conditions exist in the other sections of the country. If 
a high rate of interest has been demanded, it has been be- 
cause the conditions were such as to make the loan less safe 
than in the more settled and conservative sections of the 
country. The farmers of Kansas, Nebraska and other 
western states have complained, or at least some of the 
calamity representatives from those states have complained, 
about the hardships imposed upon them by the capitalists 
who furnish them money. The cry that has been raised 
against capital by these very men has done more to injure 
the debtor classes of those states than all other conditions 
combined. 

The men or corporations who have money to loan are 
more desirous of securing a safe loan than they are to re- 
ceive a high rate of interest, and just so soon as it is estab- 
lished in the localities where these complaints have been 
made that debts will be honestly paid with honest money, 
with a purchasing power equal to the money that they 
obtained, without expense or litigation, the rate of interest 
will be reduced there as it is in the money centers of the Middle 
and New England States. But, Mr. Speaker, the claim that 
the free and unlimited coinage of silver would bring many 
beneficial results to the farming and laboring classes of this 
country or would increase our circulating medium, is utterly 
without foundation. To the careful student of finance it 
seems utterly absurd to say that the government of tlie 
United States, standing alone among all the great nations of 
the earth, can, by a simple edict of its legislative body, 
transform 69 cents, the present market value of a silver 
dollar, into 100 cents. 



THE SILVER QUESTION. 363 

The moment that this bill should be become a law 
gold would immediately go to a premium of from 28 
to 30 per cent., and instead of increasing the circulating 
medium, as these gentlemen contend, the result would 
be that every dollar of gold that is in circulation 
to-day and gold certificates would be immediately 
hoarded for the profits which would be made upon the 2:»re- 
mium. AYe have, in round numbers, of gold and gold certif- 
icates, nearly $600,000,000 in circulation. There would 
be a contraction of the currency to this amount, for the 
reason, as I have already stated, that the owners and hold- 
ers of that money would immediately withdraw it from 
circulation, and hold it for speculative purposes. This con- 
traction would unquestionably bring on a financial crisis, 
with its untold hardships, of broken fortunes, wasted ener- 
gies and wrecked lives. 

If, Mr. Speaker, we would be guided by the light of 
experience, we have historical illustrations in our country 
that will aid the people in arriving at correct conclusions 
upon this subject. The members of this House remember 
well when gold was at a premium, and a greenback dollar, 
which to-day interchanges for a gold dollar, was worth only 
67 cents. AYhy was that ? It was because of the fear of 
the public that the United States government would be 
unable to make that promise good in coin or money that is 
i*ecognized the world over, namely, gold. An ounce of 
silver, under the j^i'oposed legislation, is to be worth $1.29. 
In the market it is Avorth something like 90 cents. The 
friends of this bill have argued that, if it is enacted into a 
law, the market value and the minted value of silver will 
come together, and that the silver will permanently main- 
tain itself, not only in the mints, but in the markets of the 
world, at $1.29 for every ounce. 

A. little reflection upon this subject, as it seems to me, 
will not only satisfy the conservative members of this House 
that such assumptions are not only unwarranted, but abso- 



364 THE SILVEM QUESTION. 

lately absurd. Remember, if you please, that not only the 
nations forming the Latin Union have limited the coinage 
of silver, but all the great commercial nations of the earth 
have demonetized it and are anxious to dispose of the silver 
that still remains with them for gold, which can be used for 
a circulating medium under their present laws. It is now 
proposed, by the gentleman from Missouri and his followers 
in this House, to have the United States enact a law by 
which that entire volume of silver can be coined into 
money, the equivalent in this country of gold, dollar for 
dollar. Have you reflected, my friends, what an undertak- 
ing that is ? 

We have, according to the statement made to me recently 
by the Director of the Mint, Mr. Leech, in the world about 
$3,939,578,000 worth of silver used as money, or held as a 
fund for the redemption of money. It is worth, according 
to the estimate made by the same authority, about 90 cents 
per ounce. Now, by this proposed legislation, the gentle- 
man from Missouri, and those who maintain that this bill 
will bring the market value of silver and its minted value 
together, contend it will raise this nearly $4,000,000,000 of 
silver from 90 cents to $1.29. In other words, their posi- 
tion involves the astounding proposition that, by this sim- 
ple legislation, a thousand millions of dollars in value are to 
be added to the present stock of silver in the world. 

This statement is an absolute refutation to all of their 
arguments. No man in his senses, who. has any capacity 
for considering subjects of this kind, will believe that legis- 
lation can produce such marvelous results. I might with 
equal propriety insist that we could pass a bill here by 
which we could increase the stature of the gentleman from 
Missouri to 9 feet and make his normal weight a ton. The 
leading minds in this country and Europe on questions of 
finance all agree that this proposition is absolutely impos- 
sible, and that silver instead of appreciating in value, will, 



THE SILVER QUESTION, 365 

under the Gresham law, drive gold out of circulation and 
send it to a premium. 

Prof. Francis A. Walker, the leading bimetallist author 
in this country, stated before the Committee on Coinage, 
Weights and Measures of the House, in a hearing held in 
1891, as follows : 

I confess that I cannot conceive how any man who has largely studied the 
question can believe, can even hope, that the United States can go it alone on 
this matter of silver coinage^ can undertake to do so without coming to speedy 
grief and humiliation. I am very well aware that many gentlemen do hon- 
estly so hope and so believe, but the overwhelming preponderance of the 
educated financial opinion of the world inclines to the belief that the pro- 
posed measaro would simply result in stripping us of our gold; in upsetting 
our exchanges with the great trading and producing nations of the world; in 
breaking us down to the level of second-rate financial powers only, such as 
China, India, and South America, and involving our trade and production in 
all the evils, the inexpressible evils, of a depreciated and fluctuating currency. 

An eminent French author, in speaking of this subject, 

says : 

In my opinion, no country can coin silver alone. Any country that coins 
only silver will remain alone and will not haj^e the money for paying abroad. 

I might multiply these opinions, Mr. Speaker, from the 
writings of every leading financier of this country and of 
Europe. There is no difference of opinion upon this sub- 
ject by all the financial writers of the world. Our neighbor- 
ing Eepublic of Mexico is an illustration of the correctness 
of opinions here expressed by these writers. The mints of 
Mexico have been opened to gold and silver alike, and the 
result is that silver has gone in there and driven out gold, 
and that while nominally Mexico has the free and unlimited 
coinage of both gold and silver, she is now and for twenty 
years has been conducting her business on a silver basis. 
The misfortune which overtook her would certainly follow 
this government if we enact this bill into law. 

If, then, Mr. Speaker, the passage of this bill will not 
bring the market value of silver bullion to its minted value, 
what will be the result upon the people of this country if it 
becomes a law ? I think I have shown, from the figures 



366 THE SILVER QUESTION. 

already presented, that gold will immediately go out of cir- 
culation, and that we will have a silver basis in this country. 
Now, I am not disposed to insist that the granting of free and 
unlimited coinage of silver will not affect its market value ; 
I think it will. I think that for a limited time, at least, 
it will enhance its value, but certainly not to the extent of 
raising it to its minted value. The result will be a shock 
to our business that will be felt not only by every business 
man throughout the entire Union, but by every farmer and 
laboring man, and every minor or widow who has money 
in our savings banks and trust companies. 

Language is inadequate to portray the hardships that 
would be imposed on the laboring classes of this country. 
Statistics show that the savings banks of the Union have on 
deposit 11,600,000,000. This great sum of money repre- 
sents the earnings of the poor people, the widows, mechan- 
ics, and estates of minors. The moment that this bill 
becomes a law, that enormous sum of money will shrink 
from 20 to 25 per cent. The depositors, instead of receiv- 
ing money which will have a purchasing power equal to that 
which they had deposited in the banks, will have a debased 
and depreciated coin which is worth, as I have said, from 
20 to 25 per cent, less than money is to-day. Another class 
of our citizens who would be seriously affected by this pro- 
posed legislation are the ex-soldiers and sailors of the 
Union. 

It is unnecessary for me at this time to dwell upon the 
hardships and privations that they endured to maintain the 
integrity of the Union, and to restore peace and tranquility 
throughout our vast republic. These brave, honest and 
fearless men, during a portion of the time when they were 
in the service of our country, were paid in a depreciated 
currency, and is it now proposed to insist upon the passage 
of this bill, which will reduce the pensions of every soldier 
and sailor who is now upon the pension rolls from 20 to 25 
per cent, of the amount that has been allowed him under 



THE SILVER QUESTION. 367 

the adjudication of the Pension Bureau. We are paying, 
in round numbers, 8140,000,000 annually to this deserving 
class of citizens. Twenty per cent, of this amount aggre- 
gates the enormous sum of 828,000,000, which, on the basis 
given, would annually be taken from the old soldiers and 
sailors on the pension rolls by the enactment of this bill 
into a law. 

I am not surprised, Mr. Speaker, that these men are 
becoming alarmed at the position of the gentleman from 
Missouri and his party associates, who favor this bill, and 
that petitions are being received from all the Grand Army 
posts of the country, protesting against a legislation which 
Avill pay them in a debased and depreciated currency. 
As every person knows who has given any thought or atten- 
tion to the subject, there is a large class of American citizens 
who have invested their money in life insurance. Many a 
young man who started out in life without money or means, 
with a brave heart and firm will, has been induced, under 
the favorable business offers which have been made by life 
insurance companies, to make his business investments in 
life insurance instead of in real estate or in the stock of 
corporations or any other business enterprises. 

These investments have been made and the money paid, 
as I have shown, on the gold basis, which has been in 
existence in this country practically since 1834. The con- 
tracts were made with the companies on that basis, and 
with the understanding that, when they were paid the 
amount of their policy, it would be in a money coin equally 
as good as that which they paid. This legislation is directly 
in favor of those great, rich arid overpowering corporations, 
and by means of it millions upon millions of dollars will be 
saved to them, but taken from the pockets of the poor, 
misguided policy-holders, who never dreamed, Avhen they 
made their investments, that the government of the United 
States, through its Congress, would interfere and by legisla- 



368 THE SILVER QUESTION. 

tion assist in robbing them and enhancing the already over- 
grown wealth of the life-insurance companies. 

I have said, Mr. Speaker, that this legislation is detri- 
mental to the laboring man. The laborer, I care not 
whether he works by the day, by the week, or by the 
month, belongs to the creditor class in this country. If he 
is a day laborer, when night comes he receives his 11.50 or 
12 for his services. It is a matter of prime importance to 
him whether that day^s labor is paid in the coin cur- 
rency of the country, as it is to-day, or whether he 
receives his pay in debased and depreciated silver dollars. 
It is estimated by the best statistical authorities that the 
wage-workers of this country are paid annually over 
$5,000,000,000 for their services. This represents a sum of 
money that will be directly affected if this bill is enacted 
into a law. 

It will depreciate the earnings of the wage- workers of this 
country nearly one-fifth, or, in round numbers, Mr. Speaker, 
it will rob these honest, hard-working men of $100,000,000 
annually. It will not do for the gentlemen who favor the 
bill to insist that the wages of the laboring classes can be 
readjusted to the new order of things so that they will not 
be injured in the general wreck of business which will follow 
such legislation. Every person knows that they are the last 
to receive the benefits of legislation which enhances prices 
and the first upon whom the blow falls in a depreciation in 
values of the metals in which they are paid. 

I think I cannot better illustrate this than by quoting 
from President Andrew Jackson, who said in one of his 
annual messages to Congress : 

The depreciation of currency is always attended by a loss to the laboring 
classes. This portion of the community have neither time nor opportunity to 
watch the ebbs and flows of the money market. Engaged from day to day in 
their useful toils, they do not perceive that, although their wages are nominally 
the same, or even somewhat higher, they are greatly reduced in fact by the 
rapid increase of currency, which, as it appears to make money abound, they 
axe at first inclined to consider a blessing, 



THE SILVER QUESTION. 369 

The more this question is considered, Mr. Speaker, the 
more apparent it must become to all classes that such legis- 
lation will not only be ruinous to the country, but that it 
will be almost a crime as affecting the interests of the 
various classes whom I have here but briefly named. If 
silver is to be restored to its money power under a free and 
unlimited coinage, it ought to be done under an agreement 
with the leading nations of Europe, which to-day, as I 
have already said, are conducting their business upon a gold 
basis. 

It is impossible for this government to grant to silver the 
powers and privileges that this bill carries, and maintain it 
at a parity with gold ; and, if that cannot be done, it is 
worse than folly — it is a crime — to give it such qualities 
as will change the standard of values of our money. As a 
great and commercial nation, it is important that our 
medium of exchange be the same as that of the other great 
commercial nations of the world. As Daniel Webster said, 
in discussing this very question : 

The circulating medium of a commercial community must be that which 
IS also the circulating medium of other commercial communities, capable of 
being converted into that medium without loss. It must be able not only to 
pass in payments and receipts among individuals of the same society and 
nations, but to adj ast and discharge the balance of exchanges between dif- 
ferent nations. 

If we had no foreign trade, and our commercial relations 
were limited simply to American citizens living in different 
sections of the American republic, this change of money 
standard would not affect so materially and seriously the 
commerce and business of the country, but no value that 
the government places upon silver as a legal tender 
among our citizens can affect our trade and commerce 
with foreign nations. It is the intrinsic value of the metal 
in foreign commerce that settles these questions, rather than 
the minted value given to it by any special country. In 
fact, the stamp of the government does not give value to the 
metal outside of the payment of debts among citizens in 



370 THE SILVER QUESTION. 

America. It simply stands as a guaranty of the fineness 
and purity of the metal ; it says that a silver dollar which 
has the stamp of the government upon it, contains 371i 
grains of pure silver. For the payment of an obligation 
which was contracted and is to he canceled in America, 
this 371^ grains is the equivalent of a gold dollar ; but if the 
obligation is contracted abroad, and is to be paid there, the 
stamp of the government weighs as nothing, and 3 71 J 
grains in the dollar is estimated at the bullion value of 69 
cents. 

In view of the many serious objections which exist against 
this bill, I ask you in all earnestness, Mr. Speaker, is it not 
more wise and patriotic to suspend all action here in the 
way of any legislation which shall look toward the restora- 
tion of silver to full legal-tender qualities until the govern- 
ment can confer with the foreign powers with whom we 
have large trading and commercial interests, and interest 
them in an international conference, which shall result in 
all of the countries thus- engaged adopting the free and un- 
limited coinage of silver on a ratio which will be common 
to all countries ? If this is done, there will be no disturb- 
ance in the business arrangements of the country, and there 
will be no scaling down of prices, no deterioration of the 
earnings of the wage-workers, and no disturbance of the 
rights of any class of our citizens. It is only by means of this 
international conference suggested that we can be placed 
upon the bimetallism system that is alleged to be so dear to 
the hearts of these friends of silver. 

In the interests and in obedience to the wishes of the 
people whom I have the honor to specially represent on this 
floor, and in accordance, in my judgment, with the best in- 
terests of the people of this country generally, I oppose the 
passage of this bill, and if, with my party associates, I may 
be successful in defeating its passage, I shall esteem it one 
of the most beneficial and patriotic efforts of my Congres- 
sional existence. [Applause. ] 



THE SILVER QUESTION. 371 

Mr. Covert. Mr. Speaker, at the very outset of this j^art 
of this discussion, and speaking for a northern constitu- 
ency, as thoughtful and intelligent as they are devoted and 
loyal to their principles, I want to deny for them and on 
my own behalf that this bill for the free coinage of silver 
is a Democratic measure. It is in no sense a party meas- 
ure, but it is in every sense a sectional one. 

It is a local question absolutely and entirely. From the 
south and the extreme west we find gentlemen on this floor 
who earnestly advocate this bill as a supposed measure of 
relief to the people of their sections. From the north and 
east are representatives who^ without regard to party lines 
or party differences, stand unalterably opposed to its enact- 
ments. This question, then, being local in its character, 
has no place in the platform of either of the two great par- 
ties which fight for supremacy upon the nation^s battlefield. 

No man lives to-day in this republic who does not give 
ready approval to the declaration that ^' governments long 
established should not be changed for light or transient 
causes.^' And so, too, principles and policies which help 
to form government and which tend to make it stable and 
secure, should not be lightly abrogated or altered ; the 
more especially when they are founded upon right, and 
have stood the test of years of successful practice. 

A safe and sound system of finance is one of the strongest 
pillars in every governmental structure. If economic 
science teaches anything, it carries with it the lesson that 
no government can create money out of anything which it 
may choose to call money. The lessons of the past teach 
us, and sound finance imperatively demands, that every gov- 
ernment should simply stamp upon each coin that comes 
from its mints its real and true value. 

The bill under discussion makes provision that the unit 
of value in the United States shall be two units ; one the 
gold dollar, worth 100 cents, and the other the standard 
silver dollar, worth only 70 cents ; and that this standard 



372 THE SILVER QUESTION. 

gold and silver coin shall be received in the United States 
in payment of all debts, both public and private. Here, 
then, we are to have two separate dollars, one intrinsically 
worth 30 cents more than the other, with the option to any 
person indebted to another to discharge his debt in the 
cheaper coin. 

A further section of the bill provides for the retirement 
of gold and silver certificates and the issue in their places 
of a ^^ coin note,^^ presumably payable in gold or silver coin, 
at the option of the government. 

Should this bill become a law, all existing government 
paper would be changed into paper which may be paid in 
silver, leaving no paper which must be paid in gold. I 
respectfully suggest that in view of the peculiar language 
of this part of the bill, something more than the sharp echo 
of the hated word ^''repudiation'"' may be found in its 
phraseology. 

The bill goes further and provides that the government 
shall take into its vaults all bullion offered and issue its 
notes for it, not at existing market rates, but at the coinage 
value fixed in the bill. 

I submit, Mr. Speaker, that the theory and practice pro- 
posed here are alike wrong. The inutility of attempting 
to bolster up the varying value of the product of silver by 
federal legislation has been proven to be most erroneous by 
the saddest of practical experience. 

The act of 1890 directing the jourchase of silver bullion, 
and for other purposes, provided that the Treasury should 
purchase from time to time silver bullion to the aggregate 
amount of not exceeding 4,500,000 ounces each month at 
market rates, and should issue in payment for such bullion 
Treasury notes of the United States, which should be redeem- 
able in coin, and should be a legal tender for the payment 
of all debts, taxes and customs duties. The advocates of 
silver coinage urged this bill as a measure of relief, and it 
was passed with the mistaken hope on the part of its oppo- 



w 



THE SILVEB QUESTION. 373 



nents that it would act as a compromise of the vexed 
"silver question/^ 

The prophecy was made then that with a steady and reli- 
able customer, and that customer the government of the 
United States, buying regularly each month from the pro- 
ducers a fixed quantity of their product, the market value 
of silver would steadily increase. What have been the 
results ? The law has been in operation a year and a half, 
and during that time the government has been taking out 
of the market quantities of silver approaching the whole 
output of the American mines ; and yet, singular to state, 
the price of silver bullion is now very near to the lowest 
point it has ever attained. 

All the conditions favored the increase in value of the 
product through this exceptional and hazardous piece of 
governmental policy. The government, month after month, 
was a regular purchaser, and a buyer which did not put its 
purchase again upon the market for resale, but stored it 
away in its vaults. More than 1400,000,000 worth of silver 
now lies idle in the Treasury building, and yet the market 
price of the metal is almost at its lowest ebb. 

In view of these facts, I submit that there is one isolated 
provision of the pending bill that ought, in all justice, to 
become a law. I refer to section 5 of the act, which pro- 
vides : "That the act of July 14, 1890, hereinbefore cited, 
be, and the same is hereby repealed. " 

And yet we are asked to go still further in lending gov- 
ernment aid to enhance the value of this product. The 
men who produce wheat in Minnesota, or cotton in 
Alabama, or tobacco in Virginia, have as good right for gov- 
ernmental intervention in behalf of their home industries 
as have the silver-miners of this country, whoever they may 
be and however potential they are. 

The doors of the Treasury of the United States should be 
closed at once and forever as entrances to a market place to 
enhance the value of any one product of the country, and 



374 THE SILVER QUESTION. 

producers in all directions should be left to themselves and 
to their own efforts to find markets for their products. 

Among the practical lessons taught us by economic 
science is this : That all classes of the people, whoever 
they may be, rich or poor, employer or employe, are alike 
benefited by a sound system of finance — a safe and stable 
currency. 

I hazard nothing in saying that by far the greater number 
of people in this country are wage-earners. Where two 
kinds of money circulate their interest lies in receiving the 
best kind of money in circulation. A large proportion of 
wage-earners are wage-savers. They put their surplus earn- 
ings in savings banks, secured by bond and mortgage, or 
invest them themselves on small mortgage securities. It 
certainly cannot be to their interest to have these earnings 
thus invested paid back to them in a depreciated money. 

I have heard no well-founded claim thus far during this 
discussion that the passage of this bill would enhance 
wages ; but it has occurred to thoughtful minds that the 
talk of "cheap money ^' would tend perhaps to induce deal- 
ers, and the retail dealers more especially, who trade in the 
necessaries of life, to increase the prices of these necessaries, 
and thus add to the living expenses of the wage-earner. 

We hear very much said of the " debtor class " in this 
connection, and it is this class, presumably, that is expected 
to be benefited by the passage of this measure. Possibly it 
may be of benefit to the man who has received some other 
man's sound money on a mortgage, pledging his property as 
security for its repayment, and who may make this repay- 
ment in a cheaper variety of money — that is if he can raise 
enough of this cheap money to discharge the mortgage 
before the speedy repeal of this law, if it shall ever become 
law. 

But to do this he may have to get a loan for the whole or 
part of the amount somewhere else, and he may find it 
difficult to do this with the impaired credit which will 



THE SILVEB QUESTION. 375 

follow as one of the results of the enactment of this measure 
into law. For behind the direct security pledged by the 
mortgagor — behind the tangible security pledged at any 
time by the debtor to the creditor — is the security of the 
borrower's integrity ; his honor ; his intention to pay back 
his loan in as good money as that in which he received it. 
And here, it occurs to me, comes the greatest injury that 
can be inflicted by making this bill the law of the land. It 
would impair the confidence of business men in the integrity 
of the people with whom they deal, and who might take 
advantage of its provisions. 

Carefully compiled statistics show that about 92 per cent, 
of the whole trade of the country is carried on by means of 
credit, leaving only 8 per cent, of it transacted with actual 
money. Capital is proverbially cautious ; let there be an 
intimation even of an authorized change in the value of 
money, and at once the whole business world is vitally 
affected, and an immediate limitation of credit is the direct 
and inevitable result. All business operations suffer by it, 
stringency, embarrassment, and bankruptcy follow in its 
train, and employer and employe, creditor and debtor will 
suffer from the shock that the withholding of customary 
trade has inflicted. 

Credit is fostered and encouraged by a safe system of 
finance, a stable and secure currency. It is ruined and 
destroyed by a hap-hazard financial policy, a debased cur- 
rency. 

We are not without instances in the world's history to 
prove the absolute verity of this assertion. The history of 
the rise and fall of the English land bank, so far back as 
1693, of John Law's glittering scheme for the establishment 
of a French national bank on the basis of all the actual 
property of the state, of the Rhode Island paper bank, and 
more recently of the experiences of the Argentine Republic 
in an attempt to increase the prosperity of its people by 
making money cheap and plentiful j all these are instances 



876 th:b: silver question. 

going to show the evils that follow thick and fast the 
attempt to fasten unsound systems of finance in the govern- 
mental policies of nations. 

All experience has shown that the gold standard is the 
only safe and reliable one to be established. The potential 
nations of the earth have adopted that as the true standard 
of value^ and this nation of ours, vigorous, prosperous and 
ambitious in all right directions, should take no second 
place in this regard. I have not the time, Mr. Speaker, to 
go into detail, but I may say generally that all European 
countries have been and are now trying to escape from 
silver, for the reason that it has become irregular in value. 

These nations would welcome with joy the passage of 
this bill, because they could, and would, make this country 
the market for the metal they desire to be rid of. Great 
Britain holds not one single dollar of silver in reserve. 
Every dollar of her reserves is in that best and most stable 
of all metals — gold. She holds her proud place to-day 
among the nations of the earth largely because of her 
jealously-guarded financial policy. She realizes that the 
only absolute freedom from possible financial danger is to 
issue only such money as in itself has all the value the 
government has stamped upon it. 

As an instance of this scrupulous regard for the national 
honor in this particular, she has recently provided for the 
expenditure of 12,000,000 for the recoining of pieces of 
her gold which had lost a few pennies of their value by 
use. 

Shall this republic be less scrupulous than England in 
the vital matter of national honor ? 

Let there be no misunderstanding upon the question as 
to the value of silver in the open market. The quantity 
of silver in the standard dollar can be bought for about 70 
cents. When the government of the United States stamps 
upon it the words " one dollar " it debases itself by stamp- 
ing a lie upon a debased metal. 



TBE SILVER QUESTION, m 

I say to the advocates of this silver bill that they mistake 
the character of the American people if they think that a 
majority of them favor the passage of a measure involving 
such humiliating conditions as this. The people of this 
land are quite content that silver should play its appropriate 
part in our volume of currency, but, while thus content, 
they believe it should play no more than its proper part. 
They believe in honest money, and they believe that 70 
cents' worth of silver is a dishonest dollar. 

Let an international conference be invited, let an inter- 
national agreement be reached for the proper reinstatement 
of silver, if you will, but meanwhile the honor, the integ- 
rity, the patriotism of this republic calls for the defeat of 
this free-coinage measure. 

The protest against this attempted legislation comes not 
from one political party alone, nor does it come from any 
one special class of our people. The gentleman from Cali- 
fornia [Mr. Bowers] has just referred to a class of presum- 
ably reputable business men as ^^ the bandits of Wall street. '' 
Wall street extends only from Trinity Church, on Broad- 
way, to the East Eiver. It does not cover the whole north 
and the entire east, and it is not alone in its protest against 
this bill. A determined and united opposition comes to it 
from the whole people of the east and north alike — from 
all classes and grades of society ; alike from the merchant 
who believes in honest money in return for honest goods, 
and from the laborer who believes in a sound dollar for a 
hard day's work. 

Meanwhile, let the soul of no patriotic American citizen 
be troubled. This attempt to have this measure become 
law will be abortive. It is simply a strained and painful 
modern comedy with the old title, '^Much ado about noth- 
ing.'' Let the play proceed, let the comedy continue. The 
bill may pass this House, it may pass the Senate, but it will 
meet its death at once thereafter. It will not receive the 
Executive approval, and its friends know that it will not be 



378 THE SILVEB QUESTION. 

approved. Being simply a sectional question, it will find 
no place in the national platform of any political party. 
The silver madness of March will be cured by the golden 
sunshine of June. The honor of the republic will be saved 
and her standing among the nations of the earth be again 
assured. [Applause.] 




(3R0VER CLEVELAND. 



BIOGRAPHY OF GROYER CLEYELAND. 



CHAPTEE VI. 

HIS AKCESTKY Ai^D EARLY LIFE. 

Grover Cleveland, the people^'s choice for President, 
comes from good old Puritan stock on his f ather^s side. In 
1635, only fifteen years after the memorable voyage of the 
Mayflower, there settled at Wobnrn, Mass., one Moses Cleve- 
land from IpsAvich, county of Suffolk, England. Of this 
man, Moses Cleveland we know but little, save that he was 
an honest, industrious and God-fearing man, and died at an 
advanced age in ITOl. The great grandson of this man was 
Aaron Cleveland, the great great grandfather of the subject 
of our sketch. 

A grandson of Aaron Cleveland was William Cleveland, 
a silversmith and watch-maker at Norwich, Conn. One 
son of this silversmith was Eichard Falley Cleveland, who 
early showed a fondness for books that led his father to 
give him a college education. Eichard Cleveland graduated 
from Yale in 1824, was ordained to the Presbyterian min- 
istry in 1829, and shortly after his ordination Avas married 
to Annie Xeal, the daughter of an Irishman, a bookseller 
and publisher of Baltimore, who had married Barbara Eeal, 
a German quakeress, of Germantown, Pa. From the mar- 
riage of Eichard Cleveland and Annie Neal there Avere nine 
children, the third of Avhom Avas Stephen Grover, born 
March 18, 1837, at CaldAvell, Essex Co., New Jersey. This 
son Avas named in honor of the Eev. Stephen Grover, who 
had first occupied the Presbyterian parsonage in which 

381 



382 BIOGRAPHY OF GBOVEB CLEVELAND. 

young GroYer was born. But in early life the Stephen was 
dropped and the boy, as he grew up,, became known as 
Grover Cleveland. 

When Grover was four years of age, the family moved to 
Fayetteville, Onondaga Co., New York, remaining nine 
years. Here Grover attended the village schools, getting 
such training as they could furnish until his fourteenth 
year, when the slender salary, alio wed his father compelled 
the boy to do something to help eke out the scanty income 
and he became a clerk in a store at Fayetteville. He was 
to receive fifty dollars for his first yearns services, and one 
hundred dollars for the second ; but the removal of the 
family to Clinton, Oneida Co., in 1850, prevented the ful- 
fillment of this contract. Clinton was the seat of a most 
excellent academy, and some months after the Cleveland 
family had settled there, Grover gave up his position in the 
store at Fayetteville, and became a student in the academy. 
Here he pursued the usual preparatory studies, intending 
to enter Hamilton College. He remained here about two 
years, when, in 1853, the family removed to Holland Pat- 
ent, a small village some fifteen miles north of Utica. 
Within one month from the time he began his ministry in 
Holland Patent Rev. Cleveland died. Grover, at this time, 
was seventeen years of age, a vigorous, ambitious youth 
bent upon obtaining a college education, but love for his 
widowed mother and brothers and sisters, now bereft of a 
father^s care, caused him to forget self and to devote his 
efforts to the no less laudable purpose of aiding in the sup- 
port of the family. What anguish it cost young Grover to 
give up the ambition of his early life, to lay aside books and 
the hopes of a college course and enter into the struggle for 
bread, none of us can know. But we do know that not a 
word of repining, not a murmur of regret was heard. His 
widowed mother needed his assistance, and he gave it will- 
ingly, manfully, abundantly, from his father's death until 
1882, when she was laid at rest beside her husband in the 



BIOGRAPHY OF GROVEB CLEVELAND. 383 

quiet cemetery at Holland Patent. A simple monument, 
erected by their children, marks their graves, and bears the 
following inscriptions : 

Eev. K. F. CLEVELAND, 

Pastor at 

Holland Patent, 

Died Oct. 1, 1853, 

Aged 49 years. 



ANNA NEAL. 

Wife of 

R. F. Cleveland, 

Died July 10, 1882, 

Aged 78 years. 
Her children arise up 
And call her blessed. 
His elder brother, William, was, at the death of his 
father, a teacher in the New York Institution for the 
Blind, situated on Ninth avenue near Thirty- third street. 
In October, 1853, William was appointed principal in the 
male department, and shortly after Grover was made his 
assistant, remaining at the Institution a little more than a 
year. A neighbor, Ingham Townsend, became interested 
in Grover and proposed that he go to college with a view of 
entering the ministry, but the young man had decided 
upon the law, and declining his friend^'s offer, he borrowed 
twenty-five dollars, to carry him to Cleveland, Ohio, where 
he hoped for a position in a lawyer^s office. On liis way he 
stopped in Buffalo to visit his uncle, Lewis F. Allen, one 
of the most influential citizens of Buffalo. 

He told Mr. Allen of his intention, but was advised by 
him to remain in Buffalo. Mr. Allen was well acquainted 
with the leading men of Buffalo, and was confident that he 
could be of service to his nephew. Mr. Allen had just 
begun the compilation of a ^'^ Herd Book,'' being an exten- 
sive breeder of cattle, and offered Grover two dollars per 



384 BIOGBAPHY OF GBOVEE CLEVELAND. 

week and his board to assist him. So Avell did he do this 
work that he was called upon to aid in the preparation of 
other volumes of the same work, and the preface to the fifth 
volume acknowledged his services. In the autumn, through 
Mr. Allen^s assistance, Grover entered the law office of 
Rogers & Bowen, who were among the leaders of the Erie 
county bar. 

Buffalo was then a thriving city of over one hundred thou- 
sand ]oeople, and had among its citizens many men of national 
reputation. Mr. Fillmore had left the presidency but two 
years before and returned there to live. Nathan K. Hall, 
Postmaster-Greneral under Fillmore, was United States judge 
of the Northern District of New York. Solomon G. Haven, 
then member of Congress, was leader of the bar. Albert H. 
Tracy, one of the most prominent men of the day, a man 
of wide culture, rare judgment and genial manner ; a distin- 
guished jurist, and a powerful politician in the best sense 
of the term, he was easily the most influential citizen of 
Buffalo and was always ready to aid young men by kindly 
counsel, wise advice or more substantial generosity. 

The gentlemen who made the firm of Eoger & Bowen 
were both notable men. Henry W. Rogers was a large man 
of hearty manner. He possessed a great store of anecdote, 
and without being witty he easily said smart things, and 
still more easily bitter ones. He was the advocate of the 
firm, and was a strong jury lawyer. 

Denis Bowen was quiet and unobtrusive, never went into 
court, never sought publicity. A master of detail, an 
excellent business lawyer, with a calm, dispassionate judg- 
ment, his clients trusted him implicitly. Denis Bowen was 
not only greatly respected, but greatly loved by those 
among whom he lived. 

Upon the bench of the Superior Court were Isaac A. 
Verplank, Joseph G. Masten and George W. Clinton. 
Judge Verplank had a vigorous and thoroughly unpartial 
mind, and a huge unwieldy body, was a good lawyer and an 



BIOGRAPHY OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 385 

excellent judge. Business before him was done rapidly. 
There was little danger that injustice would be done in his 
court to any criminal^ however wretched^ friendless, or 
guilty. Once he sent for a young lawyer and asked him to 
defend a man charged with murder. The youthful advo- 
cate pleaded his inexperience and dread of the responsi- 
bility. " Have no fear/" said the Judge ; "1 will see to it 
that your client does not suffer."'' In private Judge Ver- 
plank was the pleasantest of companions. He was fond of 
food, of wine and good company. There was no bitterness 
in his temper, but always a genial sunshine which made 
him welcome everywhere. 

Joseph Gr. Marsten was by far the most learned lawyer in 
Buffalo, an excellent jurist and a prominent figure in a city 
noted for the large member of its able men. 

In 1861, upon the death of Mr. Haven, John Grarison 
came to be the leader of the Buffalo bar. Possessing a vig- 
orous intellect, untiring industry, careful education and 
thorough training, he had no equal in the care with which 
his cases were prepared, nor in the clearness with which he 
presented the essential points of his argument. "Without 
eloquence, his lucidity and conciseness, and his instinct for 
the strong points of a case, made him a very successful 
advocate. 

The principal person in Buffalo society at that time was 
Dr. "Walter Gary, widely known in this country and in 
Europe, and who had retired from his profession by reason 
of delicate health. A large estate and a ready disposition to 
new enterprises, gave him abundant occupation. Travel 
and society were his chief pleasures, and his influence did 
much to give Buffalo its reputation for hospitality. 

These were but a few of the many notable men with whom 
young Cleveland was thrown in contact, through the influ- 
ence of his uncle, Mr. Allen, and the firm of Eogers & 
Bowen. He had begun the study of law under the most 
favorable circumstances, and with the inspiration and 



386 BIOGRAPHY OF GBOVEB CLEVELAND. 

example of these distinguished men before him, he made 
the most of every opportunity offered him. 

It may be interesting to know that for his services in the 
law office of Rogers & Bowen, Grover Cleveland was allowed 
the sum of four dollars per week. Advancing step by step, 
until after his admission to the bar, he received from them 
first 1600 and afterward $1,000 per year. 

He was admitted to the bar in 1859, but remained with 
the firm until 1863. When the civil war broke out he was 
not an uninterested spectator. The love of country was 
strong in him and he wanted to go to the front. But his 
mother and sister had come to depend principally upon him 
for support. His earnings at this time were no small 
factor, and, after long consultation, it was decided that the 
two younger brothers should go to the army and Grover 
should stay and work for the mother and sisters. Yet he 
was not satisfied, and as he could not leave his loved ones, 
he hired a substitute, working until long after the war 
closed that he might repay the loan he was forced to make 
before he could send a man in his place. 

In 1872 these younger brothers, who were in the civil 
war, were drowned at sea in the burning of the steamship 
Missouri. There they showed wonderful coolness and 
courage, aiding passengers into the lowered boats, and then, 
as there was no room for them, they went down with the 
ship. 

AK ATTORNEY AT LAW. 

In 1863 young Cleveland was appointed assistant district 
attorney for Erie County. The district attorney, Mr. 
Torrance, resided some twenty-five miles from Buffalo, and 
as a result, a large share of the work of the office fell upon 
his assistant. The three years' experience here were, how- 
ever, of great value to Mr. Cleveland. It brought him 
into court, accustomed him to trying cases, addressing 
juries; arguing points of law gave him confidence in him- 
self;, enabled hini to make a wide acquaintance among the 



BIOGRAPHY OF GROVEB CLEVELAND. 887 

people of his county attracted the attention of clients and 
the bar to him^ and also brought him into politics. The 
best evidence of his ability, fitness for the law, and stand- 
ing in his profession, is shown in his nomination to the 
important office of district attorney when only twenty-nine 
years old. His opponent was Lyman K. Bliss, a young 
Kepublican lawyer and afterward a member of Congress 
from that district. The campaign was a heated one, but 
in the end Cleveland was beaten. He accepted the result 
gracefully and good-naturedly, resumed the practice of his 
profession, and shortly afterward formed a partnership with 
Isaac P. Vanderpool. In 1867 he was offered the position 
of assistant United States district attorney for Northern 
New York, but declined that he might give proper atten- 
* tion to his rapidly growing law practice. He soon after 
became associated with A. P. Lanning and Oscar Folsom, 
who had taken the assistant attorneyship which Cleveland 
had declined. The name of the new firm was Lanning, 
Cleveland & Folsom. The daughter of the last-named 
gentleman is now the President's wife. 

In the autumn of 1870 he was offered the nomination for 
sheriff of the county. '''Now/' said he,^ to a friend whose 
advice he asked, '' I know that it is not usual for lawyers to 
be sheriffs. I do not remember of any lawyer being a 
sheriff. But, there are some reasons why I should consider 
the matter carefully. I have been compelled to earn my 
living since I was seventeen. I have never had time for 
reading, nor for thorough professional study. The sheriff's 
office would take me out of practice, but it would keep me 
about the courts, and in professional relations. It would 
give me considerable leisure, which I could devote to self- 
improvement. Besides, it wourld enable me to save a 
modest competency, and give me the pecuniary independ- 
ence which otherwise I may never have. I have come for 
your advice. What would you do in my place ?" 

He was advised to accept, took the nomination and was 



388 BIOGRAPHY OF GROVEB CLEVELAND. 

elected. Some of the duties of the sheriff's office were very- 
distasteful to him^ but he performed them with that strong 
sense of duty which has always characterized him. 

He used the opportunities of the position wisely. He 
saved considerable, gave his leisure time to professional 
studies, and as soon as he returned to the bar he at once 
took a higher place than he had ever held. 

At the close of his term as sheriff, he formed a partner- 
ship with his old antagonist, Lyman K. Bass, and Wilson S. 
Bissell. Failing health compelled Mr. Bass to remove to 
Colorado, and afterward Mr. George J. Sicard entered the 
firm, which was known as Cleveland, Bissell & Sicard. 
From this time, 1874, until his election as mayor, Cleveland 
practiced his profession with constantly increasing success. 
He came to have great skill in trying causes, and his argu- 
ments to the court were noticeable for lucidity and thorough- 
ness. Many important matters were intrusted to him, and 
before he again took office he was beginning to receive 
large fees. But during these years he was not indifferent 
to politics. Through good report and evil report he stood 
by his party. Neither success nor defeat could affect his 
allegiance or his zeal. He served on party committees, and 
but little was done in party matters in Buffalo upon which 
his advice was not taken. He was urged to accept the local 
leadership, but declined, because he could not give it the 
necessary time. 

When he went to Albany, despite the general opinion that 
he was ignorant of political methods, there were few better 
versed in practical politics than he. 

MAYOR OF BUFFALO. 

The National defeat of 1880 had not seriously impaired 
Democratic strength in Buffalo, and when the municipal 
election of 1881 drew near there was a strong feeling that a 
proper person could be elected to the mayoralty by the 
Democrats. City affairs were in an unsatisfactory state. 



BIOGRAPHY OF GBOVEB CLEVELAN 389 

and there was a general feeling in favor of mnnicipal 
reform. 

In the autumn of 1881 Cleveland was nominated Demo- 
cratic candidate for mayor of Buffalo, and after a spirited 
canvass was elected by a majority of 3,530, the largest ever 
given to a candidate in that city. In the same election the 
Eepublican state ticket was carried in Buffalo by an aver- 
age majority of 1,600 ; but Cleveland had a partial Eepub- 
lican, independent and '^ reform ^'' movement support. He 
entered upon the office Jan. 1, 1882, and at once called to 
his side, as his secretary, Mr. Harmon S. Cutting, a devoted 
friend, and a lawyer of excellent standing, unrivaled for his 
knowledge of municipal law. Mr. Cleveland entered upon 
his office believing that the affairs of the municipality should 
be kept apart from party politics. His first resolve was to 
do what he thought the interest of the city required, with- 
out reference to either the Democratic or Republican party. 
In his speech accepting the nomination for mayor, he said : 
" There is, or there should be, no reason why the affairs of 
our city should not be managed with the same care and the 
same economy as private interests ; and when we consider 
that public officials are the trustees of the people, and hold 
their places and exercise their powers for the benefit of the 
people, there should be no higher inducement to a faithful 
and honest discharge of public duty.'"' In his inaugural 
message he used the following language : 

'^ We hold the money of the people in our hands, to be 
used for their purposes and to further their interests as 
members of the municipality, and it is quite apparent that, 
when any part of the funds which the taxpayers have thus 
intrusted to us are diverted to other purposes, or when, by 
design or neglect, we allow a greater sum to be applied to 
any municipal purpose than is necessary, we have, to that 
extent, violated our duty. There surely is no difference in 
his duties and obligations, whether a person is intrusted 
with the money of one man or many.^^ 



390 BIOGBAPHY OF GBOVEB CLEVELAND. 

The public moneys were to be dealt with as private moneys 
are dealt with, by a competent and honest trustee. This 
rule he applied in a striking manner, to a resolution which 
was passed by the city council appropriating five hundred 
dollars to defray the expenses attending a proper observance 
of Decoration day. It was proposed that this sum of money 
should be paid out of what was known as the Fourth of July 
fund, and therefore the resolution was obnoxious to a pro- 
vision in the charter of the city, which made it a misde- 
meanor to appropriate money raised for one purpose to any 
other object. Upon this ground he refused to approve the 
resolution. But he also placed his refusal upon broader 
grounds. In his veto message he said : 

^^ I deem the object of this appropriation a most worthy 
one. " The efforts of our veteran soldiers to keep alive the 
memory of their fallen comrades certainly deserves the aid 
and encouragement of their fellow-citizens. We should all, 
I think, feel it a duty and a privilege to carry out such a 
purpose. 

^'^But the money so contributed should be a free gift of 
the citizens and taxpayers, and should not be extorted from 
them by taxation. This is so, because the purpose for 
which this money is asked does not involve their protection 
or interest as members of the community, and it may or 
may not be approved by them. 

'' The people are forced to pay taxes into the city treasury 
only upon the theory that such money shall be expended for 
public purposes, or purposes in which they all have a direct 
and practical interest. 

'^ The logic of this position leads directly to the conclu- 
sion that, if the people are forced to pay their money into 
the public fund and it is spent by their servants and agents 
for purposes in which the people as taxpapers have no inter- 
est, the exaction of such taxes from them is oppressive and 
unjust. 

'^ I cannot rid myself of the idea that this city govern- 



BIOGEAPHY OF GBOVER CLEVELAND. 391 

ment, iu its relation to the taxpayers, is a business establish- 
ment, and that it is put in our hands to be conducted on 
business principles. 

'^ This theory does not admit of our donating the public 
funds in the manner contem^^lated by the action of your 
honorable body. 

'^ I deem it my duty, therefore, to return both of the re- 
solutions herein referred to without my approval." 

This act attracted the attention of the whole community. 
The leading newspapers, regardless of party, gave it their 
approval. But, to accomplish the object for which the 
money had been voted, a subscription was at once set afoot, 
which the mayor headed by a liberal contribution. 

He soon had an opportunity ta apply his principles to a 
more important matter. The city council had awarded ^the 
contract for cleaning the streets for five years for the sum of 
$422,500. Another party had offered to do the work for 
$100,000 less, and the person to whom the contract had been 
given had himself, a few weeks before, proposed to perform 
the same service for fifty thousand less. The mayor re- 
turned the resolution with a message, which contained the 
following language : 

" This is a time for plain speech, and my objection to the 
action of your honorable body, now under consideration, 
shall be plainly stated. I withhold my assent from the 
same, because I regard it as the culmination of a most bare- 
faced, impudent and shameless scheme to betray the inter- 
ests of the people, and to worse than squander the public 
money. 

" I will not be misunderstood in this matter. There are 
those whose votes were given for this resolution whom I 
cannot and will not suspect of a willful neglect of the inter- 
ests they are sworn to protect ; but it has been fully demon- 
strated that there are influences, both in and about your 
honorable body, which it behooves every honest man to 
watch and avoid with the greatest care. 



392 BIOGBAPHY OF GBOVEB CLEVELAND. 

^•^Wlien cool judgment rules tlie hour, the people will, I 
hope and believe, have no reason to complain of the action 
of your honorable body. But clumsy appeals to prejudice 
or passion, insinuations as to the motives and purposes of 
others, and the mock heroism of brazen effrontery which 
openly declares that a wholesome public sentiment is to be set 
at naught, sometimes deceives and leads honest men to aid 
in the consummation of schemes, which, if exposed, they 
would look upon with abhorrence. 

^^If the scandal in connection with this street-cleaning 
contract, which has so aroused our citizens, shall cause them 
to select and watch with more care those to whom they 
intrust their interests, and if it serves to make all of us who 
are charged with official duties more careful in their per- 
formance, it will not be an unmitigated evil. 

^^'^We are fast gaining positions in the grades of public 
stewardship. There is no middle ground. Those who are 
not for the people, either in or out of your honorable body, 
are against them, and should be treated accordingly." 

Mr. Cleveland continued to apply to the affairs of Buffalo 
the same inflexible rule of administering his office as though 
it were a trust. 

During the short term of his mayoralty whatever subject 
he dealt with was presented in the light of the principle he 
he had from the first declared should guide his conduct. 
In speaking at the semi-centennial celebration of the foun- 
dation of the city, July 3d, 1882, he said : 

'''We boast of our citizenship to-night. But this citizen- 
ship brings with it duties not unlike those ive owe our 
neighbor and our Ood. There is no better time than this 
for self-examination. He who deems himself too pure and 
holy to take part in the affairs of his city, will meet the 
fact that better men than he have thought it their duty to 
do so. He who cannot spare a moment in his greed and 
selfishness to devote to public concerns, will, perhaps, find 
a well-grounded fear that he may become the prey of 



BIOGRAPHY OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 393 

public plunderers ; and he wlio indolently cares not who 
administers the government of his city, will find that he is 
living falsely, and in the neglect of his highest dut^T* 

When laying the corner-stone of the Young Men's Chris- 
tian Association building, on the 7th of September, 1882, 
he used the following language : 

" We all hope and expect that our city has entered upon 
a course of unprecedented prosperity and growth. But to 
my mind not all the signs about us point more surely to 
real gi-eatness than the event which we here celebrate. 
Good and j9^^re government lies at the foundation of tlie 
loealtli and ])rogres8 of every community. As the chief 
executive of this proud city, I congratulate all my fellow- 
citizens that to-day we lay the foundation stone of an edifice 
which shall be a beautiful ornament, and, what is more 
important, shall enclose within its walls such earnest Chris- 
tian endeavors as must make easier all our efforts to admin- 
ister safely and honestly a good municipal government/' 

These utterances disclose his high moral nature. Per- 
haps there was no occasion on which he made a clearer 
revelation of himself and his character than by the address 
which he delivered on the 9th of April, 1882, at a mass 
meeting to protest against the treatment of American citi- 
zens imprisoned abroad. He said : 

" Fellow Citizens : This is the formal mode of address 
on occasions of this kind, but I think we seldom realize 
fully its meaning, or how valuable a thing it is to be a 
citizen. 

^' From the earliest civilization, to be a citizen has been 
to be a free man, endowed with certain privileges and 
advantages, and entitled to the full protection of the State. 
The defense and protection of the personal rights of its 
citizens has always been the paramount duty of a free, 
enlightened government. 

'^And no government has this sacred trust more in its 
keeping than this — the best and freest of them all ; for 



394 BIOGRAPHY OF GBOVEB CLEVELAND. 

here the people who are to be protected are the source of 
those powers which they delegate npon the express compact 
that the citizen shall be protected. 

"And this protection adheres to ns in all lands and 
places as an incident of citizenship. Let but the weight of 
a sacreligious hand be put upon this sacred thing, and a 
great strong government springs to its feet to avenge the 
wrong. Thus it is that the native-born American citizen 
enjoys his birthright. But when, in the westward march 
of empire, this nation was founded and took root, we 
beckoned to the Old World, and invited hither its immigra- 
tion, and provided a mode by which those who sought a 
home among us might become our fellow-citizens. They 
came by thousands and hundreds of thousands ; they came 
and 

Hewed tlie dark old woods awaj, 
And gave the virgin fields to-day ; 

they came with strong sinews and brawny arms to aid in the 
growth and progress of a new country ; they came, and 
upon our altars laid their fealty and submission ; they came 
to our temples of justice, and under the solemnity of an 
oath renounced all allegiance to every other state, potentate 
and sovereignty, and surrendered to us all the duty pertain- 
ing to such allegiance. We have accepted their fealty, and 
invited them to surrender the protection of their native 
land. 

" And what should be given them in return ? Mani- 
festly, good faith and every dictate of honor demand that 
we give them the same liberty and protection here and else- 
where which we vouchsafe to our native-born citizens. 
And that this has been accorded to them is the crowning 
glory of American institutions. 

'' It needed not the statute, which is now the law of the 
land, declaring that all ' naturalized citizens while in foreign 
lands are entitled to and shall receive from this government 
the same protection of person and property which is 



BIOGBAPHY OF GBOVEB CLEVELAND. 395 

accorded to native-born citizens/ to voice the policy of our 
nation. 

^^In all lands where the semblance of liberty is preserved, 
the right of a pe'rson arrested to a speedy accusation and 
trial is, or ought to be, a fundamental law, as it is a rule of 
civilization. 

"^^At any rate, we hold it to be so, and this is one of the 
rights which we undertake to guarantee to any native-born 
or naturalized citizen of ours, whether he be imprisoned by 
order of the Czar of Eussia or under the pretext of a law 
administered for the benefit of the landed aristocracy of 
England. 

'^Vie do not claim to make laws for other countries, but 
we do insist that whatever those laws may be they shall, in 
the interests of human freedom and the rights of mankind, 
so far as they involve the liberty of our citizens, be speedily 
administered. We have a right to say, and do say, that 
mere suspicion without examination or trial, is not sufficient 
to justify the long imprisonment of a citizen of America. 
Other nations may permit their citizens to be thus impris- 
oned. Ours will not. And this in effect has been solemnly 
declared by statute. 

'''We have met here to-night to consider this subject and 
to inquire into the cause and the reasons and the justice of 
the imprisonment of certain of our fellow-citizens, now held 
in British prisons without the semblance of a trial or legal 
examination. Our law declares that the government shall 
act in such cases. But the people are the creators of the 
government. 

" The undaunted apostle of the Christian religion impris- 
oned and persecuted, appealing centuries ago to the Roman 
law and the rights of Roman citizenship, boldly demanded : 
' Is it lawful for you to scourge a man that is a Roman and 
uncondemned ? ' 

" So, too, might we ask, appealing to the law of our land 
and the laws of civilization : ' Is it lawful that these our 



396 BIOGRAPHY OF GBOVEB CLEVELAND. 

fellows be imprisoned who are American citizens and nncon- 
demned ? ' 

His careful watchfulness of the city^s interests and his 
prompt return to the council of any objectionable legislation 
without his approval gave him the name of the " veto 
mayor /^ By the exercise of this power he saved the city 
nearly 11,000^000 in the first six months of his mayoralty. 
His admirable^ impartial administration during his entire 
term of office won tributes to his integrity and ability from 
the press and the people irrespective of party. 

OOYEEifOE OF KEW YOKK. 

The year 1882 was one of political revolution, and in 
no state more so than in New York. The administration 
fight which began with the first appointments of President 
Garfield was a powerful factor in disrupting the Kepublican 
party, and when the Democratic state convention met at 
Syracuse Sept. 22, the delegates saw in Buffalo's mayor 
a candidate who could not only unite the warring factions 
of the State Democracy but could draw to himself the votes 
of many discontented Republicans. 

On the second day of the Democratic state convention 
at Syracuse, September 22, 1882, on the third ballot, by a 
vote of 211 out of 382, Grover Cleveland was nominated for 
governor in opposition to Ghas. J. Folger, then Secretary of 
the United States Treasury, nominated for the same office 
three days before by the Republican state convention 
at Saratoga. In his letter of acceptance two weeks afterward 
Mr. Cleveland wrote : ^' Public officers are the servants and 
agents of the people, to execute the laws which the people 
have made, and within the limits of a constitution which 
they have established. We may, I think, reduce to quite 
simple elements the duties which public servants owe, by 
constantly bearing in mind that they are put in place to 
protect the rights of the people, to answer their needs as 



BIOGRAPHY OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 397 

they arise, and to expend for their benefit the money drawn 
from them by taxation/^ 

In the canvass tliat followed, Cleveland had the advan- 
tage of a united Democratic party, and in addition the sup- 
port of the entire indejoendent press of the state. The 
election in K"ovember was the most remarkable in the polit- 
ical annals of ISiew York. Both gubernatorial candidates 
were men of character and of unimpeachable public record. 
Judge Folger had honorably filled high state and federal 
oflfices. But there was a wide spread dissatisfaction in the 
Republican ranks, largely due to the belief that the nomina- 
tion of Folger (nowise obnoxious in itself) was accom- 
plished by means of improper and fraudulent practices in 
the nominating convention and by the interference of the 
federal administration. What were called '^half breeds ^^ 
largely stayed away from the polls, and in a total vote of 
918,984 Cleveland received a plurality of 192,854 over 
Folger, and a majority over all, including Greenbacks, Pro- 
hibition and scattering, of 151,742. 

The office of Governor of New York has long been 
deemed the fit reward for men of large public experience, 
great ability and high personal character, and has been 
looked upon throughout the Union as an offioe scarcely 
lower in dignity and importance than the Presidency of the 
United States. 

It is not strange, therefore, that Grover Cleveland Avas 
looked uj)on with unusual interest after his election to the 
Governorship by the largest majority in the history of 
American politics. 

On the last day of December he went to Albany, and on the 
day following, dispensing with the usual parade, he walked 
with a friend through the streets from the executive man- 
sion to the capitol, and took the oath of office. He entered 
upon his office, in the words of his inaugural address, 
*^ fully appreciating his relations to the people, and deter- 
mined to serve them faithfully and well." The very begii> 



398 BIOGRAPHY OF GBOVEB CLEVELAND. 

ning of liis administration was marked by radical reforms 
in the executive cliamber. Persons having business with 
the Governor were immediately and informally admitted 
without running a gauntlet of clerks and door-keepers. 
Less rich than many former governors^ with private means 
of not more than 150^000, Governor Cleveland lived upon 
and within his official salary, simply and unostentatiously, 
keeping no carriage, and daily walking to and from his 
duties at the capitol. 

That he was but little known added much to the interest 
in the man. He had not come to the office as the result 
of political management, or of long service in one or the 
other branch of the Legislature. He was simply known as 
an honest man, of good ability, who, in every station, had 
done his duty without fear or favor. He was not tied up 
with obligations to persons, localities or interests. Trained 
to consider questions on their merits by the practice of law, 
he could look fairly and fully at every public question as it 
came up, and decide as his judgment and honesty of pur- 
pose would direct, and the people soon found that Grover 
Cleveland not only knew how to govern, but that he was 
determined to be Governor. 

Between the 26th of January and the 1st of March he 
sent to the Legislature eight veto messages. In one, lie 
refused to permit the county of Montgomery to borrow 
money. In another he refused his consent to an amend- 
ment of the charter of Elmira, which was intended to 
change the liability of the city for injuries received in con- 
sequence of the streets being in an unsafe and dangerous 
condition. He refused his signature to a bill which would 
have relieved the library association of Fredonia from the 
payment of local taxes, and to one that authorized the 
county of Chautauqua to appropriate money for a soldiers' 
monument. He vetoed an act authorizing the villages of 
Fayetteville and Mechanicsville to borrow money for the 
purpose of purchasing a steam fire-engine. 



BIOGRAPHY OF GROVEB CLEVELAND. 399 

By these vetoes lie showed that he was determined to 
deal with the public moneys on the principle that officials 
are the trustees of the people. 

He even dared to run the risk of unpopularity by the 
veto of a bill fixing a five-cent fare on the elevated railroads 
of New York. While there were good grounds for a law of 
this kind the form in which the Legislature sought to em- 
body this sentiment was so unsatisfactory that the Governor 
saw danger and injustice ahead. Op^Donents of the meas- 
ure, who had no interest in the roads, asserted that for a 
commercial community like New York to disregard the im- 
plied obligation which had arisen between the state and its 
citizens, and between the state and citizens of other states 
and countries, would be a dangerous and pernicious act. 
This latter view was taken by the Governor in the follow- 
ing extract from his veto message : 

'^ But we have especially in our keeping the honor and 
good faith of a great state, and we should see to it that no 
suspicion attaches, through any act of ours, -to the fair 
fame of the commonw^ealth. The state should not only be 
strictly just, but scrupulously fair, and in its relation to the 
citizen every legal and moral obligation should be recog- 
nized. This can only be done by legislating without vin- 
dictiveness or prejudice, and with a firm determination to 
deal justly and fairly with those from whom we exact 
obedience.'^ 

He refused to permit tEe bill to become a law without his 
signature, and put himself upon high ground by saying in 
his message : "1 am convinced, that in all cases the share 
which falls upon the executive regarding the legislation of 
the state, should be in no manner evaded, but fairly met 
by the expression of his carefully guarded and unbiased 
judgment. ^^ 

This courage challenged admiration even from political 
enemies, and made him popular with people of his state, 
because they were convinced that whatever he did, what- 



400 BIOGRAPHY OF GBOVEB CLEVELAND. 

ever position lie took, their safety and their interests 
would be consulted. 

The same independent |)osition was assumed in dealing 
with bills reorganizing the fire department in Buffalo, 
and other bills affecting the city of New York and having 
back of them considerable public sentiment, because it 
appeared that they did not accord with the interests of the 
people. 

In making appointments to public offices he undertook to 
apply the same principles governing his conduct in dealing 
with strictly business questions. While he heeded the 
demands of his party, recognizing that it is desirable 
to fill important or resj)onsible places from the domi- 
nant party, this devotion was always accompanied by 
the most exacting demands of fitness, capacity and char- 
acter in the applicant. Wherever it was possible to do so 
he recognized the civil service idea by which men having 
special fitness or experience in given lines were promoted. 
He made the assistant in the Insurance Department its 
chief ; he appointed a builder of character as Commissioner 
of the Capitol, and made a business man, whose qualifica- 
tions he knew. Superintendent of the same building. The 
Superintendency of Public Works was given to a man whose 
long experience in the management of the canals had made 
him practical and thorough. The Railroad Commission 
was selected with such judgment that the choice gave gen- 
eral party and public satisfaction, and there has probably 
been less irritation or ill-feeling between the people and the 
railroads in New York than in any other state in the 
Union. 

The platform of the convention which nominated ' Mr. 
Cleveland gave distinct pledges committing the Democratic 
party in New York to the enactment of certain legislation 
in the interest of labor. These were accepted by Mr. 
Cleveland, and in his letter of acceptance he said : 

'^ The platform of principles adopted by the convention 



BIOGRAPHY OF GROVEB CLEVELAND. 401 

meets with my hearty approval. The doctrines therein 
enunciated are so distinctly and explicitly stated that their 
amplification seems scarcely necessitated. If elected to the 
office for which I have been nominated, I shall endeavor to 
impress them upon my administration, and make them the 
policy of the state. 

'^The laboring classes constitute the main part of onr 
population. They should be protected in their efforts to 
assert their rights when endangered by aggregated capital, 
and all statutes on this subject should recognize the care of 
the state for honest toil, and be framed with a vicAV of 
improving the condition of the workingman." 

The Legislature redeemed these promises, and bills for the 
establishment of a bureau of labor statistics, for prohibiting 
the manufacture of cigars in tenement houses, and for- 
bidding the manufacture of woolen hats in penitentiaries 
were passed by the Legislature and signed by the Governor. 

But even in dealing with labor questions he did not yield 
to popular clamor when convinced that a proposed law was 
either impracticable or dangerous in principle. He refused 
to sign a bill which reached him late in the legislative 
session, known as the " Car Conductors' and Drivers^ Bill," 
which prohibited more than twelve hours for a day's work 
on street railways. This action was not taken because he 
disapproved of the objects of the proposed law, but upon 
purely legal and constitutional grounds. The bill was 
defective and unskillf ully drawn in that the right of contract 
between street car companies and their employes was not 
interfered with. 

In his second annual message G-rover Cleveland showed 
that he knew what measures the best interests of the state 
demanded, and he recommended them with that positive- 
ness which ever w^ins for public men increasing popularity 
among intelligent people. 

One important question with which he had to deal was 
the relations of corporations to the state. Many evils were 



402 BIOGBAPHY OF GEOVEB CLEVELAND, 

growing up about these associations of men and money, and 
earnest men had sought some way of meeting what seemed 
to them a serious danger. There was a general opinion that 
if the widest publicity could be given to the accounts of 
corporations created by the state the evil would be reached. 
The Governor considered this phase of the question in his 
second annual message, as follows : 

^'^It would, in my opinion, be a most valuable protection 
to the people if other large corporations were obliged to 
report to some department their transactions and financial 
condition. 

'^'^ The state creates these corporations upon the theory 
that some proper thing of benefit can be better done by 
them than by private enterprise, and the aggregation of the 
funds of many individuals may be thus profitably employed. 
They are launched upon the public with the seal of the 
state, in some sense, upon them. They are permitted to 
represent the advantages they possess and the wealth sure to 
follow from admission to membership. In one hand is 
held a charter from the state, and in other is proffered their 
stock. 

'''It is a fact, singular though well established, that 
people will pay their money for stock in a corporation 
engaged in enterprises in which they would refuse to invest 
if in private hands. 

^'^ It is a grave question whether the formation of these 
artificial bodies ought not to be checked or better regulated, - 
and in some way supervised. 

" At any rate, they should always be kept well in hand, 
and the funds of its citizens should be protected by the 
state which has invited their investment. AVhile the stock- 
holders are the owners of the corporate property, notori- 
ously they are oftentimes completely in the power of the 
directors and managers, who acquire a majority of the stock 
and by this means perpetuate their control, using the cor- 
porate property and franchises for their benefit and profit. 



BIOGBAPIIY OF GliOVEB CLEVELAND. 403 

regardless of the interests and rights of the minority of 
the stockholders. Immense salaries are paid to officers ; 
transactions are consummated by which the directors make 
money, while the rank and file among the stockholders lose 
it ; the honest investor waits for dividends and the direct- 
ors grow rich. It is suspected, too, that large sums are 
spent under various disguises in efforts to influence legisla- 
tion. 

*^ The state should either refuse to allow these corpora-^ 
tions to exist under its authority and patronage, or, acknowl- 
edging their paternity and its responsibility, should pro- 
vide a simple, easy way for its people, whose money is 
invested, and the public generally, to discover how the 
funds of these institutions are spent, and how their affairs 
are conducted. It should at the time provide a way by 
which the squandering or misuse of corporate funds would 
be made good to the parties injured thereby. 

" This might be accomplished by requiring corporations 
to frequently file reports made out with the utmost detail, 
and which would not allow lobby expenses to be hidden 
under the pretext of legal services and counsel fees, accom- 
panied by vouchers and sworn to by the officers making 
them, showing particularly the debts, liabilities, expendit- 
ures and property of the corporation. Let this report be 
delivered to some appropriate department or officer, who 
shall audit and examine the same, provide that a false oath 
to such account shall be perjury, and make the directors 
liable to refund to the injured stockholders any expenditure 
which shall be determined improper by the auditing 
authority. 

" Such requirements might not be favorable to stock 
speculation, but they would protect the innocent investors ; 
they might make the management of corporations more 
troublesome, but this ought not to be considered when the 
protection of the people is the matter in hand. It would 
prevent corporate efforts to influence legislation ; the hon- 



404 BIOGEAFHY OF GBOVEB CLEVELAND. 

estly conducted and strong corporations would have nothing 
to fear ; the badly managed and weak ought to be exposed/^ 

No other public man has given a better plan for dealing 
with the evils of legislative and official corruption. 

In his first message to the Legislature he had said, regard- 
ing municipal governments : 

^' They should be so organized as to be simple in their 
details, and to cast upon the people affected thereby the 
full responsibility of their administration. The different 
^departments should be in such accord as in their operation 
to lead toward the same results. Divided counsels and 
divided responsibility to the people, on the part of municipal 
officers, it is believed, give rise to much that is objection- 
able in the government of cities. If, to remedy this evil, 
the chief executi'^e should be made answerable to the 
people for the proper conduct of the city^s affairs, it is 
quite clear that his power in the selection of those who 
manage its different departments should be greatly 
enlarged. 

' ^ It is not only the right of the people to administer their 
local government, but it should be made their duty to do so. 
Any departure from this doctrine is an abandonment of 
the principles upon which our institutions are founded, and 
a concession of the infirmity and partial failure of the theory 
of a representative form of government. 

'^ If the aid of the Legislature is invoked to further projects 
which should be subject to local control and management, 
suspicion should be at once aroused, and the interference 
sought should be promptly and sternly refused. 

• ' If local rule is in any instance bad, weak, or inefficient, 
those who suffer from maladministration have the remedy 
within their own control. If, through their neglect or 
inattention it falls into unworthy hands, or if bad methods 
and practices gain a place in its administration, it is 
neither harsh nor unjust to remit those who are responsi- 
ble for those conditions to their self-invited fate, until their 



k 



BIOGRAPHY OF GROVEE CLEVELAND. 405 

interest, if no better motive, prompts them to an earnest 
and active discharge of the duties of good citizenship/^ 

The Legislature of 1884 accepted this theory, and acting 
upon it passed an elaborate bill depriving the board of alder- 
men of NcAV York city of the power of confirming appoint- 
ments to certain offices in that city, and lodging this power 
in the hands of the mayor without restriction. The bill did 
not meet the opinions of the Governor in every way, but he 
signed it, filing a memorandum of the reasons Avhicli had 
led him to take this action. Under this law municipal pol- 
itics in the city of New York have improved vastly. 

As governor, Mr. Cleveland recognized the importance of 
the National Guard of New York, and with a view of get- 
ting the most efficient practical results. He was careful to 
promote the true interests of the soldiers who served in the 
Union army during the Civil War, approving measures giv- 
ing soldiers and sailors preference for employment upon 
public works, and the provision for completing the records 
of New York regiments and other military organizations and 
for their safe keeping. 

Among the important measures was an act providing for 
a commission to select and set apart such lands as might 
be found necessary for the preservation of the scenery at 
Niagara Falls. This law has since been carried into com- 
plete effect with the most satisfactory results, and the state 
reservation at Niagara Falls promises in due time to 
become one of the most striking of the landscape features 
of the state. Already many of the serious abuses which 
formerly met visitors to that great natural wonder have 
been removed. 

The reform of the state civil service system, the protec- 
tion and preservation of the forests of the Adirondacks, the 
promotion of education and industry, and other measures, 
found in Governor Cleveland a most active and intelligent 
support. 

In a speech made at the Albany High School he said ; 



406 BIOGRAPHY OF GBOVEB CLEVELAND. 

" I accepted the invitation of your principal to visit your 
school this morning with pleasure^ because I expected to 
see much that would gratify and interest me. In this I 
have not been disappointed. But I must confess that if 1 
I had known that my visit here involved my attempting to 
address you, I should have hesitated, and quite likely have 
declined the invitation. 

^' I hasten to assure you now that there is not the slight- 
est danger of my inflicting a speech upon you, and that I 
shall do but little more than to express my pleasure in the 
proof I have of the excellence of the methods and the man- 
agement of the school, and of the opportunities which those 
who attend have within their reach of obtaining a superior 
education. 

^'1 never visit a school in these days without contrasting 
the advantages of the scholar of to-day with those of a time 
not many years in the past. Within my remembrance even, 
the education which is freely offered you was only secured 
by those whose parents were able to send them to academies 
and colleges. And thus, when you entered this school very 
many of you began where your parents left otf . 

^' The theory of the state in furnishing more and better 
schools for the children, is that it tends to fit them to bet- 
ter perform their duties as citizens, and that an educated 
man or woman is apt to be more useful as a member of the 
community. 

^'^This leads to the thought that those who avail them- 
selves of the means thus tendered them are in duty bound 
to make such use of their advantages as that the state shall 
receive in return the educated and intelligent citizens and 
members of the community which it has the right to expect 
from its schools. You, who will soon be the men of the 
day, should consider that you have assumed an obligation to 
fit yourselves by the education which you may, if you will, 
receive in this school, for the proper performance of any 
duty of citizenship, and to fill any public station to which 



BIOGBAPHY OF GBOVER CLEVELAND. 407 

you may be called. And it seems to me to be none 
the less important that those who are to be the wives and 
mothers should be educated, refined, and intelligent. To 
tell the truth, I should be afraid to trust the men, educated 
though they should be, if they were not surrounded by pure 
and true womanhood. Thus it is that you all, now and 
here, from the oldest to the youngest, owe a duty to the 
state which can only be answered by diligent study and the 
greatest possible improvement. It is too often the case that 
in all walks and j^laces the disposition is to render the least 
possible return to the state for the favors which she bestows. 

^^ If the consideration which I have mentioned fails to 
impress you, let me remind you of what you have often 
heard, that you owe it to yourselves and the important 
part of yourselves to seize, while you may, the opportuni- 
ties to improve your minds, and store into them, for your 
own future use and advantage, the learning and knowledge 
now fairly within your reach. 

'^ Xone of you desii'e or expect to be less intelligent or 
educated than your fellows. But unless the notions of 
scholars have changed, there may be those among you who 
think that in some way or manner, after the school day is 
over, there will be an opportunity to regain any ground now 
lost, and to complete an education without a present devo- 
tion to school requirements. I am sure this is a mistake. 
A moment's reflection ^ought to convince all of you that 
when you have once entered upon the stern, uncompromis- 
ing, and unrelenting duties of mature life, there will be no 
time for study. You will have a contest then forced upon 
you which will strain every nerve and engross every faculty. 
A good education, if you have it, will aid you, but if you 
are without it, you cannot stop to acquire it. When you 
leave the school you are well equipjoed for the van in the 
army of life, or you are doomed to be a laggard, aimlessly 
and listlessly following in the rear. 

''^ Perhaps a reference to truths so trite is useless here. I 



408 BIOGRAPHY OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

hope it is. But I have not been able to forego the chance 
to assure those who are hard at work that they will surely 
see their compensation, and those, if any such there are, 
who find school duties irksome, and neglect or slightingly 
perform them, that they are trifling with serious things 
and treading on dangerous ground/^ 

So faithfully had Mr. Cleveland done his work as Grov- 
ernor of New York, and so widely and favorably had he be- 
come known, that as the Democratic l^ational Convention 
of 1884 drew near a strong feeling in his favor began to 
manifest itself. His record was such as to not only com- 
mend him to his own party, but such as to draw to his sup- 
port the large independent vote, which had grown to large 
proportions, especially in New York. So effectually had 
party sentiment crystalized itself around Mr. Cleveland as 
the most available candidate that his nomination seemed a 
foregone conclusion when the convention met. Yet there 
was no lack of contestants for the nomination. 

The National Democratic Convention met in Chicago at 
noon, July 8th, 1884, and was called to order by Senator 
W. H. Barnum, of Connecticut, chairman of the National 
Committee. 

On the second day a permanent organization was effected, 
with William F. Vilas, of Wisconsin, as President, who laid 
down the principles on which he thought the canvass should 
be conducted, and predicted the victory which followed. 

While waiting for the Committee on Eesolutions to report 
the roll of states was called, and the names of Allen G. 
Thurman, of Ohio, Thos. F. Bayard, of Delaware, Thos. A. 
Hendricks, and other prominent Democrats, were named, 
but on the second ballot Mr. Cleveland received six hundred 
and eighty-three votes out of a total of eight hundred and 
twenty, and was declared the unanimous nominee of the 
convention. 

THE CAMPAIGJS". 

The Presidential campaign of 1884 will long be remem- 



BIOGRAPHY OF GBOVER CLEVELAND. 411 

berecl for its bitterness. It was a cam23aign of joersonalities, 
especially in its earlier stages. The most outrageous and 
untruthful charges were invented and circulated against the 
private character of Mr. Cleveland. His friends were 
alarmed and went to him for advice. ^^ Tell the truth/^ he 
said, without shrinking, and with conscious integrity in his 
own past record, he met the charges with an exposure of 
their falsity, which left little consolation for his enemies. 

The committee appointed by the convention to notify him 
of his nomination to the office of President performed its 
duty, and his reply, so modest, so appreciative of the honor 
conferred upon him, as well as the responsibility it entailed, 
-is worthy 0/ close study. We give it in full : 

''Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Committee: 

'' Your formal announcement does not, of course, convey 
to me the first information of the result of the convention 
lately held by the Democracy of the nation, and yet, when, 
as I listen to your message, I see about me representatives 
from all parts of the land of the great party which, claim- 
ing to be the party of the people, asks them to intrust to it 
the administration of their government, and when I con- 
sider, under the influence of the stern reality which the 
present surroundings create, that I have been chosen to 
represent the plans, purposes, and the policy of the Demo- 
cratic party, I am profoundly impressed by the solemnity 
of the occasion and by the responsibility of my position. 
Though I gratefully appreciate it, I do not at this moment 
congratulate myself upon the distinguished honor which 
has been conferred upon me, because my mind is full of an 
anxious desire to perform well the part which has been 
assigned to me. 

" Nor do I at this moment forget that the rights and 
interests of more than fifty millions of my fellow-citizens 
are involved in our efforts to gain Democratic supremacy. 
This reflection presents to my mind the consideration 



412 JBIOGMAPMY OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

which, more than all others, gives to the action of my party 
in convention assembled its most sober and serious aspect. 
The party and its representatives which ask to be intrusted 
at the hands of the people with the keeping of all that con- 
cerns their welfare and their safety, should only ask it with 
the full appreciation of the sacredness of the trust, and 
with a firm resolve to administer it faithfully and well. I 
am a Democrat because I believe that this truth lies at the 
foundation of true democracy. I have kept the faith, 
because I believe, if rightly and fairly administered and 
applied. Democratic doctrines and measures will insure the 
happiness, contentment, and prosperity of the people. 

^' If, in the contest upon which we now enter, we stead- 
fastly hold to the underlying principles of our party creed, 
and at all times keep in view the people^s good, we shall be 
strong, because we are true to ourselves, and because the 
plain and independent voters of the land will seek by their 
suffrages to compass their release from party tyranny where 
there should be submission to the popular will, and their 
protection from party corruption where there should be 
devotion to the people's interests. These thoughts lend a 
consecration to our cause, and we go forth, not merely to 
gain a partisan advantage, but pledged to give to those who 
trust us the utmost benefits of a pure and honest admin- 
istration of national affairs. No higher purpose or motive 
can stimulate us to supreme effort, or urge us to continuous 
and earnest labor and effective party organization. Let us 
not fail in this, and we may confidently hope to reap the 
full reward of patriotic services well performed. I have 
thus called to mind some simple truths, and, trite though 
they are, it seems to me we do well to dwell upon them at 
this time. I shall soon, I hope, signify, in the usual formal 
manner, my acceptance of the nomination which has been 
tendered to me. In the meantime I gladly greet you all as 
co-workers in the noble cause.'' 

At a later date Mr. Cleveland forwarded to the committee 



BIOGRAPHY OF GEOVEB CLEVELAND. 413 

his formal letter of acceptance, in Avhicli lie outlined his 
sentiments as to the issues of the contest : 

" Albaxy, N. Y., August 18th, 1884. 

" G-EJTTLEMEK : I have received your communication 
dated July 28th, 1884, informing me of my nomination to 
the office of President of the United States by the National 
Democratic Convention lately assembled at Chicago. 

^''I accept the nomination with a grateful appreciation of 
the supreme honor conferred, and a solemn sense of the 
responsibility which, in its acceptance, I assume. 

'' I have carefully considered the platform adopted by the 
Convention and cordially approve the same. So plain a 
statement of Democratic faith and the principles upon 
which that party a]3peals t^ the suffrages of the people needs 
no supplement or explanation. 

^^ It should be remembered that the office of President is 
essentially executive in its nature. The laws enacted by the 
legislative branch of the Government the Chief Executive 
is bound faithfully to enforce. And when the wisdom of 
the political party which selects one of its members as a 
nominee for that office has outlined its policy and declared 
its principles, it seems to me that nothing in the character 
of the office or the necessities of the case requires morc- 
f rom the candidate accepting such nomination than the sug- 
gestion of certain well-known truths so absolutely vital to 
the safety and welfare of the nation, that they cannot be 
too often recalled or too seriously enforced. 

'' We proudly call ours a government by the people. It 
is not such when a class is tolerated which arrogates to itself 
the management of public affairs, seeking to control the 
people instead of representing them. 

" Parties are the necessary outgrowth of our institutions ; 
but a government is not by the people when one party fast- 
ens its control upon the country and perpetuates its power 



414 BIOGRAPHY OF GBOVER CLEVELAND. 

by cajoling and betraying the people, instead of serving 
them. 

'^ A government is not by the people, when a result which 
should represent the intelligent will of free and thinking 
men is, or can be, determined by the shameless corruption 
of their suffrages. 

^''When an election to office shall be the selection by the 
voters of one of their number to assume for a time a public 
trust instead of his dedication to the profession of politics ; 
when the holders of the ballot, quickened by a sense of 
duty, shall avenge truth betrayed and pledges broken, 
and when the suffrage shall be altogether free and 
uncorrupted, the full realization of a government by 
the people will be at hand. And of the means to this 
end, not one would, in my judgment, be more effective than 
an amendment to the Constitution disqualifying the Presi- 
dent from re-election. When we consider the patronage of 
this great office, the allurements of power, the temptation 
to retain public place once gained, and, more than all, the 
availability a party finds in an incumbent whom a horde 
of office-holders, with a zeal born of benefits received, and 
fostered by the hopes of favors yet to come, stand ready to 
aid with money and trained political service, we recognize 
in the eligibility of the President for re-election a most 
serious danger to that calm, deliberate, and intelligent polit- 
ical action which must characterize a government by the 
people. 

^^A true American sentiment recognizes the dignity of 
labor and the fact that honor lies in honest toil. Contented 
labor is an element of national prosperity. Ability to work 
constitutes the capital and the wage of labor the income of 
a vast number of our population ; and this interest should 
be jealously protected. Our workingmen are not asking 
unreasonable indulgence ; but, as intelligent and manly citi- 
zens, they seek the same consideration which those demand 
who have other interests at stake. They should receive 



BIOGRAPHY OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 415 

their full share of the care and attention of those Avho make 
and execute the laws, to the end that the wants and needs 
of the employers and the employed shall alike be subserved, 
and the prosperity of the country, the common heritage of 
"both, be advanced. As related to this subject, while we 
should not discourage the immigration of those who come 
to acknowledge allegiance to our Government and add to 
our citizen population, yet as a means of protection to our 
workingmen, a different rule should prevail concerning 
those who, if they come, or are brought, to our land, do not 
intend to become Americans, but will injuriously compete 
with those justly entitled to our field of labor. 

^^ In a letter accepting the nomination to the office of 
Governor, nearly two years ago, I made the following state- 
ment, to which I have steadily adhered : 

" ' The laboring classes constitute the main part of our 
population. They should be protected in their efforts 
peaceably to assert their rights when endangered by aggre- 
gated capital ; and all statutes on this subject should recog- 
nize the care of the state for honest toil and be framed with 
a view of improving the condition of the workingman.^ 
jf "^A proper regard for the welfare of the workingman 
being inseparably connected with the integrity of our insti- 
tutions, none of our citizens are more interested than they 
in guarding against any corrupting influences which seek 
to pervert the beneficent purposes of our government ; and 
none should be more watchful of the artful machinations of 
those who allure them to self-inflicted injury. 

^' In a free country, the curtailment of the absolute 
rights of the individual should only be such as is essential 
to the peace and good order of the community. The limit 
between the proper subjects of governmental control, and 
those which can be more fittingly left to the moral sense 
and self-imposed restraint of the citizen, should be carefully 
kept in view. Thus laws unnecessarily interfering with the 
habits and customs of any of our people which are not 



416 BIOGRAPHY OF GBOVBE CLEVELAND. 

offensive to the moral sentiments of the civilized world, and 
which are consistent with good citizenship and the pnblic 
welfare, are nnwise and vexations. 

" The commerce of a nation to a great extent determines 
its supremacy. Cheap and easy transportation should 
therefore be liberally fostered. Within the limits of the 
Constitution, the general government should so improve 
and protect its natural water-ways as will enable the pro- 
ducers of the country to reach a profitable market. 

^''The people pay the wages of the public employes, and 
they are entitled to the fair and honest work which the 
money thus paid should command. It is the duty of those 
intrusted with the management of their affairs to see that 
such public service is forthcoming. The selection and re- 
tention of subordinates in government employment should 
depend upon their ascertained fitness and the value of their 
work, and they should be neither expected nor allowed to 
do questionable party service. The interests of the people 
will be better protected ; the estimate of public labor and 
duty will be immensely improved ; public employment will 
be open to all who can demonstrate their fitness to enter it ; 
the unseemly scramble for place under the government, 
with the consequent importunity which embitters official 
life, will cease ; and the public departments will not be 
filled with those who conceive it to be their first duty to aid 
the party to which they owe their places, instead of render- 
ing patient and honest return to the people. 

'' I believe that the public temper is such that the voters 
of the land are prepared to support the party which gives 
the best promise of administering the government in the 
honest, simple, and plain manner which is consistent with 
its character and purposes. They have learned that mys- 
tery and concealment in the management of their affairs 
cover tricks and betrayal. The statesmanship they require 
consists in honesty and frugality, a prompt response to the 



BIOGMAPHY OF GEOVEB CLEVELAND. 417 

needs of the people as tliey arise, and the vigilant protec- 
tion of all their varied interests. 

'*If I should be called to the chief magistracy of the 
nation by the suffrages of my fellow-citizens, I will assume 
the duties of ^that high office with a solemn determination 
to dedicate every effort to the country ^s good, and with an 
humble reliance upon the favor and support of the Supreme 
Being, who, I believe, will always bless honest human 
endeavor in the conscientious discharge of public duty. 

"^ GrEOVER Cleveland. ^' 

Mr. Cleveland's nomination was made with a view to 
drawing the independent vote, and the campaign showed 
that the managers had not mistaken the temper of this ele- 
ment. Many prominent Republicans, believing the nomina- 
tion of their party was not in the interests of the people, 
gave active support to Mr. Cleveland. Independent and 
Republican journals of prominence enrolled themselves 
under the Cleveland banner, and exercised a potent influ- 
ence in the campaign. In vain did the Republican leaders 
apply the party lash, and fasten the term '^"'mugwump "upon 
all who deserted them. Their allegiance could not be 
shaken. 

In wonderful contrast was the conduct of the two Presi- 
dential candidates. Mr. Cleveland, although urged to enter 
actively in the campaign, could not and would not forget 
that he was Governor of J^ew York, and his service belonged 
to the people. He remained at his post, attending to his 
duties with the same conscientious care which hitherto 
marked his career. He seldom went outside the state, and 
the few speeches he uttered were marked by a serious, earnest 
tone, and were confined to the limits within which he believed 
the campaign should be fought. 

When the camjoaign of personalities was at its height Mr. 
Cleveland made a visit to his old home in Buffalo. The 
ovation tendered him showed how those who knew him best 
regarded the attacks made upon him. The city turned out 



418 BIOGEAPHT OF GBOVEB CLEVELAND. 

en masse, the speech of welcome being made by Henry 
Martin^ president of one of the leading banks of the city. 
In his reply Mr. Cleveland pathetically touched upon the 
personal feature of the campaign in the following language : 

^*^ It tells me that my neighbors are still my friends. It 
assures me that I have not been altogether unsuccessful in 
my efforts to deserve their confidence and attachment. In 
years to come, I shall deem myself not far wrong if I still 
retain their good opinion ; and if surrounding cares and 
perplexities bring but anxiety and vexation, I shall find 
solace and comfort in the memory of the days spent here, 
and in recalling the kindness of my Buffalo friends." 

Near the close of the campaign he addressed a meeting at 
Newark, New Jersey, and prophesied what came to be 
the primal issue at the end of his first term. He 
said: /*^ It is quite plain, too, that the people have a 
right to demand that no more money should be taken from 
them directly or indirectly for public uses than is neces- 
sary for an honest and economical administration of public 
affairs. Indeed, the right of the government to exact 
tribute from the citizens is limited to its actual necessities, 
and every cent taken from the people beyond that required 
for their protection by the government is no better than 
robbery. We surely must condemn, then, a system which 
takes from the pockets of the people millions of dollars not 
needed for the support of the government, and which tends 
to the inauguration of corrupt schemes and extravagant 
expenditures. 

^'^The Democratic party has declared that all taxation 
shall be limited by the requirements of an economical gov- 
ernment. This is plain and direct ; and it distinctly rec- 
ognizes the value of labor and its right to governmental 
care when it further declares that the necessary reduction 
in taxation and limitation thereof to the country^s needs 
should be effected without destroying American labor, or 
tlie ability to com|)ete successfully with foreign labor^ and 



BIOGRAPHY OF GBOVER CLEVELAND. 419 

without injuring the interests of our laboring population." 

In the last speech of the 1884 campaign, at Bridgeport, 
Connecticut, he said : 

"■ The world does not present a more sublime spectacle 
than a nation of freemen determining their own cause, and 
the leader whom they follow at such a time may well feel a 
sober, solemn sense of responsibility. The plaudits of his 
fellows he should feel, but only to feel more intensely what 
a serious thing it is to have in keeping their hopes and their 
confidence. 

Nothing from Mr. Cleveland's tongue or pen better 
shows the modesty, self-reliance, consecration to duty, and 
determination to be true to every trust than does a letter 
written to his brother during the gubernatorial contest of 
1882. We give it in full : 

^' Mayok's Office, Buffalo, N. Y., 
^'November, 7th, 1883. 

''My Dear Brother — I have just voted. I sit here in 
the mayor's office alone, with the exception of an artist 
from Frank Leslie's newspaper, who is sketching the 
office. If mother were here I should be writing to her, and 
I feel as if it were time for me to write to some one who 
will believe Avhat I write. I have been for some time in the 
atmosphere of certain success, so that I have been sure that 
I should assume the duties of the high office for which I 
have been named. I have tried hard in the light of this 
fact to properly appreciate the responsibilities that will rest 
upon me, and they are much — too much — underesti- 
mated. But the thought that has troubled me is : Can I 
well perform my duties, and in such a manner as to do some 
good to the people of the state ? I know there is room for 
it, and I know that I am honest and sincere in my desire to 
do well, but the question is, wh'ether I know enough to 
accomplish what I desire. 

'' The social life which seems to await me has also been a 
subject of much anxious thought, I have a notion that I 



420 BIOGBAFHY OF GEOVER CLEVELAND. 

can regulate that very much as I desire, and if I can I shall 
spend very little in the purely ornamental part of the office. 
1a point of fact, I will tell you, first of all others, the policy 
I intend to adopt, and that is to make the matter a business 
engagement between the people of the state and myself, in 
Avhicli the obligation on my side is to perform the duties 
assigned me with an eye single to the interest of my employ- 
ers. I shall have no idea of re-election or of any higher 
political preferment in my head, but be very thankful and 
happy if I can well serve one term as the people^s Governor. 
Do you know that if mother were alive I should feel so much 
safer ? I have always thought her prayers had much to do 
with my success. I shall expect you to help me in that 
way. 

^'^Give my love to and to , if she is with you, 

and believe me, 

'^ Your affectionate brother, 

'^^ Grover Cleyela^^d." 

In striking contrast to this unostentatious conduct was 
that of Mr. Blaine, who allowed himself to be carried from 
place to place and heralded with all the pageantry that 
boundless resources could suggest. Ovations, receptions, 
banquets marked his campaign, and did much to create a 
feeling that his election was desired by millionaires and 
monopolists. Indeed, to these and to the Burchard inci- 
dent many admirers of Mr. Blaine attributed his defeat. 
The manner, too, in which Mr. Blaine met the charges 
against his integrity was not such as to satisfy the best 
elements in his own party. His half-hearted denials and 
weak evasions seemed pitifully feeble in contrast to Mr. 
Cleveland's ^^tell the truth." 

On the 4th of November the election was held, Mr. 
Cleveland carrying twenty states, with two hundred nine- 
teen electoral votes, and Mr. Blaine carrying eighteen 
states, with one hundred eighty-two electoral votes. The 
poj)ular vote was as follows : 



BIOGBAPHY OF GBOVEE CLEVELAND. 421 

Cleveland, - 4,874,980 Blaine, - 4,851,981 
Butler, - - 173,370 St. John, 150,369 

A futile attempt was made by Republican managers to 
show that New York was doubtful, but investigation showed 
that, though ^ the plurality was small, it was decisive. The 
demonstrations of approval and rejoicings which followed 
need no mention here. 

Shortly before resigning his office as Governor of New 
York, Mr. Cleveland forwarded a letter to the president of 
the National Civil Service Eeform Association, embodying 
his views upon that subject and the general policy he 
intended to follow. We quote tho following extracts : 

" I regard myself pledged to this [civil service reform] 
because my conception of tfue Democratic faith and public 
duty requires that this and all other statutes should be in 
good faith and without evasion enforced, and because, in 
many utterances made prior to my election as President, 
approved by the party to which I belong, and which I have 
no disposition to disclaim, I have in effect promised the 
people that this should bo done. 

"I am not unmindful of the fact, to which you refer, 
that many of our citizens fear that the recent party changes 
in the national executive may demonstrate that the abuses 
which have grown up in the civil service are ineradicable, 
I know that they are deeply rooted, and that the spoils 
system has been supposed to be intimately related to success 
in the maintenance of party organization, and I am not 
sure that all those who profess to be the friends of this 
reform will stand firmly among its advocates when they 
find it obstructing their way to patronage and place. 

"But, fully appreciating the trust committed to my 
charge, no such consideration shall cause a relaxation on 
my part of an earnest effort to enforce the law. 

'^ There is a class of government positions which are not 
within the letter of the civil-service statute, but which are 
so disconnected with the policy of an administration that 



422 BIOGRAPHY OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

the removal therefrom of present incumbents, in my opinion, 
should not be made during the term for which they were 
appointed solely on partisan grounds, and for the purpose 
of putting in their places those who are in political accord 
with the appointing power. 

^' But many now holding such positions have forfeited all 
just claim to retention because they have used their places 
for party purposes, ill disregard of their duty to the people, 
and because, instead of being decent public servants, they 
have proved themselves offensive partisans and unscrupulous 
manipulators of local party management. 

" The lessons of the past should be unlearned, and such 
officials, as well at their successors, should be taught that 
efficiency and fitness and devotion to public duty are the 
conditions of their continuance in public place, and that 
the quiet and unobstrusive exercise of individual political 
rights is the reasonable measure of their party service. 

^'^If I were addressing none but party friends, I should 
deem it entirely proper to remind them that, though the 
coming administration is to be Democratic, a due regard 
for the people^s interest does not permit faithful party work 
to be always rewarded by appointment to office, and to say 
to them that, while Democrats may expect all proper con- 
sideration, selections for office not embraced within the 
civil-service rules will be based upon sufficient inquiry as to 
fitness instituted by those charged with that duty, rather 
than persistent importunity or self-solicited recommenda- 
tions on behalf of candidates for appointment." 

At the close of 1882 Mr. Cleveland resigned the Govern- 
orship, desiring to acquaint himself as far as possible with 
the hew responsibilities which awaited him. Yet his whole 
time could not be given to this. Delegations and individ- 
uals from various states waited upon him. Some came to 
suggest, advise and even urge those who in their opinion 
would make cabinet officers, others wanted office for them- 
selves and their friends, while many came to pay their 



BIOGRAPHY OF GBOVEB CLEVELAND. 423 

respects^, give friendly greeting and assurance of cordial 
suj^port. To all lie was the courteous^ unassuming patient 
and earnest citizen^ as modest over the great victory he had 
achieved as leader of the Democratic hosts as in the days 
when he was the young barrister in Buffalo. His genial 
bearing, kindly manner and wise suggestion won the respect 
of all he met. 

Visitors left him feeling that the people^s interests would 
be safe in his hands. Mr. Cleveland was frequently in- 
vited to address public meetings and to give expression to 
his views upon various questions. One of the questions 
which attracted the attention of thoughtful men was the 
effect of the compulsory silver coinage act of 1878. Mr. 
Cleveland was invited by members of the Forty-eighth 
Congress to give his opinion upon this question, and so 
sound were his views that they will be read with interest at 
this time. In a letter dated February 28th, 1885, and 
directed to Hon. A. T. Warner, he said : '' Gentlemen — 
The letter which I have had the honor to receive from you, 
invites, and, indeed, obliges, me to give expression to some 
grave public necessities, although in advance of the moment 
when they would become the objects of my official care and 
.j)artial responsibility. Your solicitude that my judg- 
ment shall have been carefully and deliberately formed is 
entirely just, and I accept the suggestion in the same friendly 
spirit in which it has been made. , It is also fully justified 
by the nature of the financial crisis which, under the opera- 
tion of the act of Congress of February 28th, 1878, is now 
close at hand. 

^^By a compliance with the requirements of that law all 
the vaults of the Federal treasury have been and are heaped 
full of silver coins, which are now worth less than eighty- 
five per cent, of the gold dollar prescribed as the unit of 
value in section IG of the act of. February 12th, 1873, and 
which, with the silver certificates representing such coin, 
are receivable for all public dues. Being thus .receivable, 



424 BIOGBAPHY OF GMOVER CLEVELAND. 

while also constantly increasing in quantity at tlie rate of 
$28^000^000 a year, it lias followed of necessity that the flow 
of gold into the treasury has steadily diminished. Silver 
and silver certificates have displaced and are now displacing 
the gold in the Federal treasury now available for the gold 
obligations of the United States and for redemption of the 
United States notes called '^ greenbacks/ if not already 
encroached upon^ is perilously near such encroachment. 

'^ These are facts which, as they do not admit of differ- 
ence of opinion, call for no argument. They have been 
forewarned to us in the official reports of every Secretary of 
the Treasury, from 1878 .till now. They are plainly affirmed 
in the last December report of the present Secretary of the 
Treasury to the Speaker of the j)resent House of Repre- 
sentatives. They appear in the official documents of this 
Congress, and in the records of the New York clearing- 
house, of which the treasury is a member, and through which 
the bulk of the receipts and payments of the Federal Gov- 
ernment and country pass. 

^^ These being the facts of our present condition, our 
danger, and our duty to avert that danger, would seem to 
be plain. I hope that you concur with me and with the 
great majority of our fellow-citizens, in deeming it most 
desirable at the present juncture to maintain and continue 
in use the mass of our gold coin, as well as the mass of sil- 
ver already coined. This is j)ossible by a present susj)ension 
of the purchase and coinage of silver. I am not aware that 
by any other method it is possible. It is of momentuous 
importance to |)revent the two metals from parting company ; 
to prevent the increasing displacement of gold by the in- 
creasing coinage of silver ; to prevent the disuse of gold in 
the custom-houses of the United States in the daily business 
of the people ; to prevent the ultimate expulsion of gold by 
silver. Such a financial crisis as these events would cer- 
tainly precipitate, were it now to follow upon so long a 
period of commercial depression, would involve the people 



BIOGBAPHY OF GEOVER CLEVELAND. 425 

of every city and every state in the Union in a prolonged 
and disastrous trouble. The revival of business enterprise 
and prosperity so ardently desired, and apparently so near, 
would be hopelessly postponed. Gold would be withdrawn 
to its hoarding places, and an unprecedented contraction 
in the actual volume of our currency would speedily take 
place. 

" Saddest of all, in every workshop, mill, factory, store, 
and on every railroad and farm the wages of labor, already 
depressed, would suifer still further depression by a scaling 
down of the purchasing power of e^very so-called dollar paid 
into the hands of toil. From these impending calamities, 
it is surely a most patriotic ajid grateful duty of the repre- 
sentatives of the people to deliver them. 

'' i am, gentlemen, with sincere respect, your fellow- 
citizen, 

^^Grovee Olevela:n^d. 

'^Albany, February 24th, 1885.'' 

HIS ADMINISTRATION". 

Shortly before the day set his inauguration, Mr. Cleve- 
land went to Washington as the guest of President Arthur, 
who showed the President-elect that kindly, courteous 
treatment for which he was noted. 

An immense assemblage had gathered from all over the 
land to witness the ceremonies. Never before had there 
been seen such numbers, such enthusiasm at a Presidential 
inaugural. More than 150,000 people gathered in front 
of the east end of the Capitol to witness the ceremonies. 
Before this vast concourse Mr. Cleveland appeared, modest, 
but confident, and delivered his inaugural address without 
notes or manuscript. His manner, as well as his speech, 
inspired respect and confidence, and everywhere there were 
the highest demonstrations of joy at the auspicious manner 
in which the new administration was begun. His inaugural 
address was favorably received, and, did space permit, we 



426 BIOGBAPHY OF GROVER CLEVELAND. ' 

would give it here. From it we can only select a few 
extracts. Tliey are as follows : 

'^^ In each succeeding year it more clearly appears that 
our Democratic principle needs no apology, and that in its 
fearless and faithful application is to be found the surest 
guaranty of good government. But the best "results in the 
operation of a government wherein every citizen has a share 
largely depend upon a proper limitation of purely partisan 
zeal and effort, and a correct appreciation of the time when 
the heat of the partisan should be merged in the patriotism 
of the citizen. 

^^ To-day the executive branch of the government is 
transferred to new keeping, but this is still the government 
of all the people, and it should be none the less an object of 
affectionate solicitude. At this hour the animosities of 
political strife, the bitterness of partisan defeat and the 
exultation of partisan triumph should be supplanted by an 
ungrudging acquiescence in the popular will, and a sober, 
conscientious concern for the general weal. 

'^'^ Moreover, if from this hour we cheerfully and hpnestly 
abandon all sectional prejudice and distrust, and determine 
with manly confidence in one another to work out harmoni- 
ously the achievements of our national destiny, we shall 
deserve to realize all the benefits which our happy form of 
government can bestow ; on this conspicuous occasion Ave 
may well renew the pledge of devotion to the Constitution 
which, launched by the founders of the Eepublic and con- 
secrated by their prayers and patriotic devotion, has for 
almost a century borne the hopes and the aspirations of a 
great people through prosperity and peace, and through the 
foreign conflicts and the perils of domestic strife and vicis- 
situdes. 

^'^By the Father of his Country our Constitution was 
commended for adoption as '^ the result of a spirit of amity 
and mutual concession." In that same spirit it should be 
administered, in order to promote the lasting welfare of the 



BIOGRAPHY OF GROVEB CLEVELAND. 427 

country, and to secure the full measure of its priceless ben- 
efits to us and to those who will succeed to the blessings of 
our national life. The large variety of diverse and compet- 
ing interests subject to federal control, persistently seeking 
the recognition of their claims, need give us no fear that 
the greatest good to the greatest number will fail to be 
accomplished, if in the halls of the National Legislature 
that spirit of amity and mutual concession shall prevail in 
Avhich the Constitution had its birth. 

^* If this involves the surrender or postjoonement of pri- 
vate interests, the sacrifice of local vantages, compensation 
will be found in assurance that thus the minor interest is 
subserved, and the general welfare advanced. ^^ 

Much interest was manifested by the people everyi^here 
in the men Mr. Cleveland might choose as his advisers. It 
was supposed that one with no experience in public life out- 
side his own state, and with so limited an acquaintance 
among the leading men of the country at large, would con- 
sult prominent men in his own party upon the question of 
appointments. But Mr. Cleveland maintained a discreet 
silence until after his inauguration, when the names he sent 
to the Senate for confirmation as cabinet officers showed 
that Mr. Cleveland's judgment could be relied upon. At 
the head of the State Department was placed Thos. F. Bay- 
ard, of Delaware, cautious, conservative, experienced. As a 
lawyer he ranked high, as a statesman few men of any 
party had better reputation, and thrice presented to na- 
tional conventions as a candidate for president, his appoint- 
ment gave eminent satisfaction. 

Daniel Manning of New York was named as Secretary of 
the Treasury. Beginning life as a ^orinter's apprentice, he 
rose step by step until he became editor and owner of the 
Albany Argiis. As he prospered he turned to the study of 
finance and became prominent in banking circles. Identi- 
fying himself with the Democratic party in his youth, his 
integrity, industry, loyalty to party and wise counsel soon 



428 BIOGRAPHY OF GBOVEB CLEVELAND. 

gave him a prominent position in liis party. As chairman 
of the New York Democratic State Committee he was not 
only a strong factor in securing Mr. Cleveland's nomination 
for the Presidency^ but in securing his election as well. His 
brief career as Secretary of the Treasury was eminently sat- 
isfactory to the best elements of the country. 

As Secretary of the Interior Senator L. Q. C. Lamar^ of 
Mississippi^ was named^ and he proved himself well qualified 
for the position. His wise management of the Pension 
Office, the Agricultural Department, Patent Office and 
Indian Affairs won commendations from all sides. His 
firmness in dealing with delinquent Pacific railroads, and 
reclaiming lapsed land grants saved the country large sums 
of money and added luster to the shining administration of 
Grover Cleveland. His appointment to tlie Supreme Court 
was regretted only because it removed so faithful and efficient 
a head from the Interior Department. 

Wm. C. Endicott, of Massachussetts, was named for 
Secretary of War. Pie was less known than any other 
department head, but the care with which he performed his 
duties, the honesty and fidelity manifested, and the excellent 
discipline he maintained, attested the wisdom of his appoint- 
ment. 

Wm. C. Whitney, of New York, was named as Secretary 
of the Navy. He had shown industry, good judgment and 
executive ability of a high order as corporation counsel for 
the city of New York, and exercised great influence in the 
politics of his state. Although the youngest member of the 
cabinet, he was eminently successful in restoring the navy 
to a sound business basis. He maintained unswerving 
loyalty to his chief, and was the recognized leader of the 
forces which nominated Mr. Cleveland for President at 
Chicago, June 23, 1892 

Augustus H. Garland, of Arkansas, was named as 
Attorney General. One of the ablest lawyers of the land, of 
long public service as Executive of his state, and as a 




EX-SEC. Vy. B. WHITNEY. 



BIOGRAPHY OF GBOVEB CLEVELAND. 431 

United States senator, he had fully proved his fitness for the 
position by his patriotism, integrity and wisdom as a law- 
maker. 

Wm. F. Vilas, of \Yisconsin, was named as Postmas- 
ter-General. He was a lawyer of marked ability, an 
orator of national reputation, a shrewd leader of politics 
and a man who had seen legislative service. The close con- 
nection of this department with the every-day life of the 
people in every town and hamlet make it one of the most 
important, yet, under the wise direction of Mr. Vilas, it met 
every test and was in keeping with the excellent service ren- 
dered by the other departments. These, then, were the 
men whom Mr. Cleveland chose as his advisers, and so 
apparent was their fitness that their selection was hailed 
with joy. But it was not only in the selection of his 
cabinet that Mr. Cleveland showed a keen insight into the 
qualities and characters of his appointees to office. 

In the diplomatic service he named Edward J. Phelps, of 
Vermont, as Minister to England ; Eobert McLane, of Mary- 
land, as Minister to France ; Geo. H. Pendleton, of Ohio, as 
Minister to Germany ; Geo. V. N. Lothrop, of Michigan, as 
Minister to Russia; J. B. Stallo, of Ohio, as Minister to Italy. 

John C. Black was made Commissioner of Pensions, 
Joseph 8. Miller was placed at the head of the Internal 
Revenue Department, Norman J. Coleman, Commissioner 
of Agriculture ; General Wm. S. Rosecrans, Register of the 
Treasury ; Geo. A. Jenks, Assistant Secretary of the Interior, 
and later. Solicitor General ; Malcolm Hay, First Assistant 
Postmaster General ; Adlai E. Stevenson, Second Assistant, 
and afterwards First- Assistant Postmaster General ; Conrad 
N. Jordan, as Treasurer of the United States. All rendered 
efficient service and helped to make Mr. Cleveland's adminis- 
tration the wisest and safest the American people have had 
for many years. 

Although Mr. Cleveland was conservative in removals 
and making appointments, too much so to satisfy that ele- 



432 BIOGBAFHY OF GBOVEB CLEVELAND, 

ment of his party which, did not accept his civil service 
pledges as sincere^ the Republican Senate^, early in the 
administration, sought to prevent removals by claiming that 
they were entitled to the papers upon which removals and 
appointments were made. The President replied in a dig- 
nified manner,, declining to give up the documents called 
for, upon the ground that they were private and affected 
matters of interest to himself. The Senate was forced to 
yield, and got out of the difficulty in the only manner open 
to them, viz., by confirming the appointments. It was 
seen, too, as time passed, that the President's appointees 
were fitted for the places to which they had been called. 
For the first time the principles of civil service were found 
to be making active advancement. 

In the death of Vice-President Thos. A. Hendricks, 
which occurred November 25, 1885, the President lost one 
of his most ardent supporters and able coadjutors, and the 
Democratic party one of its ablest advocates and lofty 
patriots. 

In his first message to the Forty-ninth Congress, which 
convened on the first Monday in December, 1885, the Presi- 
dent referred feelingly to the death of Mr. Hendricks, and 
paid high tribute to his memory. He discussed pointedly 
and fully such questions as the reform of abuses which had 
found their way into civil service, the holding of public 
lands for those who wished to make homesteads upon them, 
the passing of laws to prevent collection of surplus revenue 
and the lowering of taxes. Upon this last question his 
views would best be given at length. He said : ^^ The 
fact that our revenues are in excess of the actual needs of 
an economical administration of the Government justifies a 
reduction in the amount exacted from the people for its 
support. Our government is never better administered 
and its true spirit, is never better observed, than when the 
people's taxation for its support is scrupulously limited to 



BIOGBAPHY OF GROVEE CLEVELAND. 433 

the actual necessity of expenditure, and distributed accord- 
ing to a just and equitable plan. 

" The proposition with which we have to deal is the 
reduction of the revenue received by the government, and 
indirectly paid by the people from customs duties. The 
question of free trade is not involved, nor is there now any 
occasion for the general discussion of the wisdom or expedi- 
ency of a protective system. Justice and fairness dictate 
that in any modification of our present laws relating to 
revenue, the industries and interests which have been 
encouraged by such laws, and in which our citizens have 
large investments, should not be ruthlessly injured or de- 
stroyed. AYe should also deal with the subject in such a 
manner as to protect the interests of American labor, which 
is the capital of our workingmen ; its stability and proper 
remuneration furnish the most justifiable pretext for a pro- 
tective policy. 

'^''Within these limitations a certain reduction should be 
made in our customs revenue. The amount of such 
reduction having been determined, the inquiry follows, 
where can it best be remitted, and what articles can best be 
released from duty, in the interests of our citizens ? I think 
the reduction should be made in the revenue derived from 
a tax upon the imported necessaries of life. We thus 
directly lessen the cost of living in every family of the 
land, and release to the people in every humble home a 
larger measure of the rewards of frugal industry." 

He further emphasized his views upon the civil service 
question, as follows : 

" I am inclined to think that there is no sentiment more 
general in the minds of the people of our country, than a 
conviction of the correctness of the principle upon which 
the law enforcing civil-service reform is based. . . . Ex- 
perience in its administration will probably suggest amend- 
ment of the methods of its execution, but I venture to 
hope that we shall never again be remitted to the system 



434 BIOGBAPHY OF GBOVEB CLEVELAND. 

which distributes public positions purely as rewards for 
partisan service. Doubts may well be entertained whether 
our government could survive the strain of a continuance 
of this system, which upon every change of administration 
inspires an immense army of claimants for office to lay 
siege to the patronage of government^ engrossing the time 
of public offiers with their importunities, spreading abroad 
the contagion of their disappointment, and filling the air 
with the tumult of their discontent. 

^^ The allurements of an immense number of offices and 
places, exhibited to the voters of the land, and the promise 
of their bestowal in recognition of partisan activity, 
debauch the suffrage and rob political action of its thought- 
ful and deliberative character. The evil would increase 
with the multiplication of offices consequent upon our ex- 
tension, and the mania for office-holding, growing from its 
indulgence, would pervade our population so generally that 
patriotic purpose, the support of principle, the desire for 
the public good, and solicitude for the nation^s welfare, 
would be nearly banished from the activity of our party 
contests and cause them to degenerate into ignoble, selfish, 
and disgraceful struggles for the possession of office and 
public place. Civil-service reform enforced by law came 
none too soon to check the progress of demoralization. 
One of its effects, not enough regarded, is the freedom it 
brings to the political action of those conservative and 
sober men who, in fear of the confusion and risk attending 
an arbitrary and sudden change in all the public offices 
with a change of party rule, cast their ballots against such 
a change. 

^^ Parties seem to be necessary, and will long continue to 
exist ; nor can it be now denied that there are legitimate 
advantages, not disconnected with office-holding, which fol- 
low party supremacy. While partisanship continues bitter 
and pronounced, and supplies so much of motive to senti- 
ment and action, it is not fair to hold public officials, in 



BIOGRAPHY OF GBOVER CLEVELAND. 435 

charge of important trusts, responsible for the best results 
in the performance of their duties, and yet insist that they 
shall rely, in confidential and important places, upon the 
work of those not only opposed to them in political affiliation, 
but so steeped in partisan prejudice and rancor that they 
have no loyalty to their chiefs and no desire for their 
success. Civil-service reform does not exact this, nor does 
it require that those in subordinate positions who fail in 
yielding their best service, or who are incompetent, should 
be retained simply because they are in place. The whin- 
ing of a clerk discharged for indolence or incompetency, 
who, though he gained his place by the worst possible oper- 
ation of the spoils system, suddenly discovers that he is 
entitled to protection under the sanction of civil-service 
reform, represents an idea no less absurd than the clamor of 
the applicant who claims the vacant position as his compen- 
sation for the most questionable party work." 

His views with reference to the public lands were set forth 
as follows : 

" It is not for the ' common benefit of the TJnited States^ 
that a large area of the public lands should be acquired, 
directly or through fraud, in the hands of a single individ- 
ual. The nation's strength is in the people. The nation's 
prosperity is in their prosperity. The nation's glory is in 
the equality of her justice. The nation's perpetuity is in the 
patriotism of all her people. Hence, as far as practicable, 
the plan adopted in the disposal of the public lands should 
have in view the original policy, which encouraged many 
purchasers of these lands for homes, and discouraged the 
massing of large areas. Exclusive of Alaska, about three- 
fifths of the national domain has been sold or subjected tg 
contract or grant. Of the remaining two-fifths a consider- 
able portion is either mountain or desert. A rapidly increas- 
ing population creates a growing demand for homes, and 
the accumulation of Avealth inspires an eager competition to 
obtain the public land for speculative purposes. In the 



436 BIOGRAPHY OF GBOVER CLEVELAND. 

future this collision of interests will he more marked than 
in the past, and the execution of the nation's trust in behalf 
of our settlers will be more difficult. I therefore commend 
to your attention the recommendations contained in the 
report of the Secretary of the Interior with reference to the 
repeal and modification of certain of our land laws. 

The nation has made princely grants and subsidies to a 
system of railroads projected as great national highways to 
connect the Pacific States with the East. It has been 
charged that these donations from the people have been 
diverted to private gain and corrupt uses, and thus public 
indignation has been aroused and suspicion engendered. 
Our great nation does not begrudge its generosity, but it 
abhors peculation and fraud ; and the favorable regard of 
our people for the great corporations to which these grants 
were made can only be revived by a restoration of confi- 
dence, to be secured by their constant, unequivocal, and 
clearly manifested integrity. A faithful application of the 
undiminished proceeds of the grants to the construction and 
perfecting of their roads, an honest discharge of their obliga- 
tions, and entire justice to all the people in the enjoyment 
of their rights on these highways of travel, are all the public 
asks, and it will be content with no less. To secure these 
things should be the common purpose of the officers of the 
government, as well as of the corporations. With this 
accomplishment, prosperity would be permanently secured 
to the roads, and national pride would take the place of 
national complaint.'^ 

One incident of Cleveland's administration deserves 
especial notice, as it shows that his sympathies are with the 
people, and further attests the depth and resources of his 
mind, as well as -his patient care in investigation in matters 
under his consideration. In 1878 one Guilford Miller 
settled upon some lands lying within the limits of certain 
lands allotted to the Northern Pacific Eailroad as indem- 
nity lands for deficiencies in grants made it by Congress. 



BIOGRAPHY OF GROVEE CLEVELAND. 437 

Mr. Miller remained upon his lands until 1884, when he 
claimed title to his homestead. The railroad set up a 
previous claim^ and the matter went into litigation. The 
case was finally referred to the Attorney General, who, on 
technical and legal grounds, was forced to decide in favor 
of the company. The President requested that all the 
paj^ers in the case be turned over to him. This was done, 
and to this case he gave the most assiduous and painstaking 
personal research. The results of his investigations were 
embodied in a letter dated April 25, 1887, and addressed to 
the Secretary of the Interior. He proposed that the rail- 
road select an equal amount of land from vacant portions 
near at hand, and that the settler be given a title to the 
home he had made, and so be protected ^'froni hardship 
and loss."*^ In his letter he stated that his policy in such 
cases would be as follows : 

^^ There seems to be no evidence presented showing how 
much, if any, of this vast tract is necessary for the fulfill- 
ment of the grant to the railroad comj)any, nor does there 
appear to be any limitation of the time within which this 
fact should be made known and the corporation obliged to 
make its selection. After a lapse of fifteen years this large 
body of the public domain is still held in reserve, to the 
exclusion of settlers, for the convenience of a corporate 
beneficiary of the government and awaiting its selection, 
though it is entirely certain that much of this reserved land 
can never be honestly claimed by said corporation. Such a 
condition of the public lands should no longer continue. 
So far as it is the result of executive rules and methods, 
these should be abandoned, and so far as it is a consequence 
of improvident laws, these should be rej)ealed or amended. 

'' Our public domain is our national wealth, the earnest of 
our growth and the heritage of our people. It should j^romise 
limitless development and riches, relief to a crowding popu- 
lation, and homes to thrift and industry. These inestima- 
ble advantages should be Jealously guarded, and a careful 



438 BIOGEAPHY OF GBOVEB CLEVELAND. 

and enlightened policy on the part of the government 
should secure them to the people. In the case under con- 
sideration^ I assume that there is an abundance of land 
within the area which has been reserved for indemnity, in 
which no citizen or settler has a legal or equitable interest, 
for all purposes of such indemnification to this railroad com- 
pany, if its grant has not already been satisfied/' 

In line with this policy was his proclamation ordering the 
removal of fences built by ranchmen and inclosing large 
areas of public lands. By this means large tracts of land, 
which these men had successfully held, despite efforts to 
reclaim them, were restored to the public domian. Also, 
20,000,000 acres granted to railroads, and held by them as 
indemnity lands, were thrown upon the market by the 
President and Secretary of the Interior, and are to-day the 
homes of thousands of settlers. 

The forty-eighth and forty-ninth Congresses, under Demo- 
cratic control, passed laws restoring 50,000,000 acres of 
unearned railroad lands to the United States, and it might 
be added, that a Democratic House passed bills restoring 
38,000,000 acres of fortified lands, in which a Republican 
Senate failed to concur. 

The President watched, with eagle eye, the appropriations 
of Congress, especially in respect to public buildings, and, 
by the interposition of his veto, not only saved the people 
large sums of money, but checked the pernicious practice of 
"log-rolling," which had grown to such large proportions 
under Republican rule. His wise selection of Inter-State 
Commerce Commissioners did much to lessen the unjust 
discriminations of railroads in favor of certain classes of 
shippers, and is a matter of history too well known to be 
given in detail here. 

He also vetoed a large number of private claims which 
had been lobbied through Congress, advancing the ample 
reason that the courts can protect the individual in his deal- 
ings with the government. 



BIOGRAPHY OF GROVEll CLEVELAND, 439 

In accordance with a suggestion in his first message. 
Congress passed the Presidential Succession bill, which had 
been so long pending. His special message to the first 
session of the Forty-ninth Congress, recommending arbitra- 
tion as a means of settling disputes between employers and 
employes, gave further evidence of his interest in the 
workingman. 

The administration was able, dignified and clean in every 
way, and proved the falsity of the ante-election cry of the 
Republicans, that a change to Democratic rule Avould be 
followed by results injurious to business interests. 

MAKRIAGE AKD TOURS. 

President Cleveland entered the W^hite House a bachelor. 
He was forty-seven years old, and was thought to be a con- 
firmed celibate. His youngest sister. Rose Elizabeth, was 
also unmarried, and was called upon to act as mistress of 
the White House. She was a self-reliant, positive, cultured 
woman, and filled the difficult position to the satisfaction of 
all concerned. 

When it began to be whispered about that President 
Cleveland contemplated marriage, public interest in his 
love affairs was intense. The lady whom he honored with 
the offer of his hand was worthy of all that man could 
bestow upon her. What more need be said of her ? Miss 
Frances Folsom, whom the Avhole nation has learned to love 
and honor as Mrs. Cleveland, was the daughter of Oscar 
Folsom, the law partner of Mr. Cleveland in Buffalo. 
'* Miss Frank," as she was called, was born in Buffalo, July 
21st, 1864. She early showed those qualities of mind and 
heart which won for her the first place in the hearts of the 
people when she was placed so conspicuously before them. 
She received the best of educational advantages, and gradu- 
ated from Wells College in 1885. 

Shortly after this she went abroad, returning May 27th, 
1336. On Wednesday, June 2d; following, the marriage of 



440 BIOGBAFHY OF GBOVEB CLEVELAND. 

Miss Folsom and Mr. Cleveland was solemnized at the White 
House. The event was private^ only a few intimate friends, 
near relatives, and the members of the cabinet and their 
wives being present. Their honeymoon was passed at Deer 
Park, Maryland. On June 15th the first state reception of 
Mr. and Mrs. Cleveland was held. Mrs. Cleveland acquitted 
herself with honor, and from that time her beauty, grace, 
tact, and womanly qualities made her the best-loved and 
the most-talked-of woman of the land. In every way she 
has proved herself the efficient helpmeet of her husband, 
and to-day holds the place accorded her by popular acclama- 
tion when she made her debut into Washington society, viz., 
the '^ first lady in the land.^"* 

Grover Cleveland found no time to travel during the 
years we have traced his career. The unending toil to 
which he compelled himself gave neither time nor oppor- 
tunity for recreation of this kind. Seldom had he been 
beyond the confines of his own state until after his election 
to the Presidency. Indeed, it was urged against him in the 
campaign of 1884, that he was unacquainted with the 
country, its resources and its people. 

To satisfy his desire for information, and to gratify the 
constant demands from the people that he should come 
among them, Mr. Cleveland, in the fall of 1887, deter- 
mined to see for himself the country and the people over 
which he ruled. On September 30th he set out, accom- 
panied by his wife, his private secretary and wife, and 
a few personal friends. He visited the South and West, 
and everywhere received the most enthusiastic greet- 
ings. Wherever he stopped, crowds gathered. Strong 
men traveled miles to see the man the nation had learned to 
honor and to pay tribute to his worth. Children brought 
their offerings of flowers to lay at his feet, and were proud 
to know that he accepted their humble gifts. Party lines 
were cast aside, and the people left nothing undone to 
show their loyalty and respect. At every stopping-place 




MRS. CLEVELAND. 



I 



BIOGRAPHY OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 443 

he was called npon to speak, and by his well-chosen words 
increased the respect of those he met. 

His addresses on this trip are worthy of complete rej^eti- 
tion, but space forbids. Only a fcAV can be given here. 

At Chicago, in speaking of the people and their officials, 
he said : 

^' You have said the President ought to see Chicago. I 
am here to see it and its hospitable, large-hearted people. 
But because your city is so great, and your interests so 
large and important, I know you will allow me to suggest 
that I have left at home a city you ought to see and know 
more about. In point of fact, it would be well for you to 
keep your eyes closely upon it all the time. Your servants 
and agents are there. They are there to protect your 
interests and to aid your efforts to advance your prosperity 
and well-being. Your bustling trade, and your wearing, 
ceaseless activity of hand and brain, will not yield the 
results you deserve unless wisdom guides the policy of your 
government, and unless your needs are regarded at the 
capitol of the nation. It will be well for you not to forget 
that in the performance of your political duties with calm 
thoughtfulness and broad patriotism there lies not only a 
safeguard against business disaster, but an important obli- 
gation of citizenship.^^ 

At Milwaukee, in referring to the Presidency, he spoke 
as follows : " And because it belongs to all the peo- 
ple, the obligation is manifiest on their part to maintain 
a constant and continuous watchfulness and interest con- 
cerning its care and operation. Their duty is not entirely 
done when they have exercised their suffrage and indi- 
cated their choice of the incumbent. Nor is their ducy 
performed by settling down to bitter, malignant and sense- 
less abuse of all that is done or attempted to be done by the 
incumbent selected. The acts of an administration should 
not be approved as a matter of course, and for no better 
reason than that it represents a political party. But more 



444 BIOGRAPHY OF GBOVEB CLEVELAND. 

unpatriotic than all others are those who, having neither 
party discontent nor fair ground of criticism to excuse or 
justify their conduct, rail because of personal disappoint- 
ments, who misrepresent for sensational purposes, and who 
profess to see swift destruction in the rejection of their 
plans of governmental management. After all, we need 
have no fear that the American people will permit this high 
office to suffer. There is a patriotic sentiment abroad 
which, in the midst of all party feeling and all party disap- 
pointment, will assert itself, and will insist that the office 
which stands for the people's will, shall, in all its vigor, 
minister to their prosperity and welfare. " 

At St. Paul he said : 

^^My visit to you being a social one, and trusting that we 
have a sort of friendly feeling for eacl\ other, I want to 
suggest to you why I am particularly and personally inter- 
ested in St. Paul and its people. Some years ago a young 
girl dwelt among you and went to school. She has grown 
up to be a woman, and is now my Avife. If any one thinks 
a President ought not to mention things of this sort in pub- 
lic, I hope he or she does not live in St. Paul, for I do not 
want to shock anybody when I thank the good people of 
this city because they neither married nor spoiled my wife, 
and when I tell them they are related to that in my life 
better than all earthly honors and distinctions. Hereafter, 
you may be sure that her pleasant recollections of her 
school days will be reinforced by the no less pleasant mem- 
ory of our present visit, and thus will our present interest 
in St. Paul and its kind citizens be increased and perpetu- 
ated.'' 

At Kansas City he laid the corner-stone of the Young 
Men's Christian Association building, and said, among 
other things : 

'^ In the busy activities of our daily life we are apt to 
neglect instrumentalities which are quietly but effectually 
doing most important service in molding our national 



BIOGBAPHY OF GROVEB CLEVELAND. 445 

character. Among these, and challenging but little notice 
compared with their valuable results, are the Young Men's 
Christian Associations scattered throughout the country. 
All will admit the supreme importance of that honesty and 
fixed principle which rest upon Christian motives and pur- 
poses, and all will acknowledge the sad and increasing 
temptations which beset our young men and lure them to 
their destruction. 

" To save these young men, oftentimes deprived of the 
restraints of home, from degradation and ruin, and to fit 
them for usefulness and honor, these associations have 
entered the field of Christian effort and are pushing their 
noble work. Whenr it is considered that the objects of their 
efforts are to be the active men for good or evil in the next 
generation, mere human prudence dictates that these asso- 
ciations should be aided and encouraged. Their increase 
and flourishing condition reflect the highest honor upon the 
good men who have devoted themselves to this work, and 
demonstrate that the American people are not entirely lack- 
ing in appreciation of its value. Twenty years ago but one 
of these associations owned a building, and that was valued 
at eleven thousand dollars. To-day more than one hundred 
such buildings, valued at more than five million dollars, 
beautify the different cities of our land and beckon our 
young men to lives of usefulness. 

" I am especially pleased to be able to participate to-day 
in laying the corner-stone of another of these edifices in 
this active and growing city ; and I trust that the encour- 
agement given the Young Men^s Christian Association 
located here may be commensurate Avith its assured useful- 
ness and in keeping with the generosity and intelligence 
which are characteristic of the people of Kansas City.^' 

Among other speeches that added to the reputation of 
Mr. Cleveland we quote the following extracts. At Rich- 
mond, Virginia, Oct. 21st, 1886, he said : 

^' In our sisterhood of states the leading and most com- 



446 JBlOaBAPHY OF GBOVEB CLEVELAND. 

manding place must be gained and kept by that common- 
wealtli, which by the labor and intelligence of her citizens 
can produce most of those things which meet the necessities 
and desires of mankind. But the full advantage of that 
which may be yielded a state by the toil and ingenuity of 
her people is not measured alone by the money value of the 
product. The efforts and the struggles of her farmers and 
her artisans, not only create new values in the field of agri- 
culture and in the arts and manufactures, but they at the 
same time produce rugged, self-reliant and independent 
men, and cultivate that product which more than all others 
ennoble^ a state — a patriotic, earnest American citizenship. 

'^ This will flourish in every part of the American domain ; 
neither drought nor rain can injure it, for it takes root in true 
hearts enriched by love of country. There are no new vari- 
eties in this production; it must be the same wherever 
seen, and its quality is neither sound nor genuine unless it 
grows to deck and beautify an entire and united nation, nor 
unless it support and sustain the institutions and the gov- 
ernment founded to protect American liberty and happi- 
ness. 

*^'^The present administration of the government is 
pledged to return for such husbandry, not only promises 
but actual tenders of fairness and justice, with equal pro- 
tection and a full participation in national achievements. 

"^^ If in the past we have been estranged, and the cultiva- 
tion of American citizenship has been interrupted, your 
enthusiastic welcome of to-day demonstrates that there is 
an end of such estrangement, and that the time of suspicion 
and fear is succeeded by an era of faith and confidence. 

'' In such a kindly atmosphere and beneath such cheering 
skies I greet the people of Virginia as co-laborers in the 
field where grows the love of our united country. 

^' God grant that in the years to come Virginia, the Old 
Dominion, the mother of Presidents, she who looked upon 
the nation at its birth, may not only increase her trophies 



' 



BIOGRAPHY OF GBOVER CLEVELAND. 447 

of growth in agriculture and manufactures, but that she 
may be among the first of all the states in the cultivation of 
true American citizenshij)/^ 

Invited to deliver an address at the two hundred fiftieth 
anniversary of the founding of Harvard University, he 
spoke feelingly and in a manner that denoted a keen appre- 
ciation of the higher culture that had been denied him. 
He said : 
"Jfr. President and Gentlemen: 

"I find myself to-day in a company to which I am much 
unused, and when I see the alumni of the oldest college in 
the land surrounding in their right of sonship the maternal 
board at which I am but an invited guest, the reflection 
that for me there exists no alma mater gives rise to a feeling 
of regret which is kindly tempered only by the cordiality of 
your welcome and 3^our reassuring kindness. If the fact is 
recalled that only twelve of my twenty-one predecessors in 
office had the advantage of a collegiate or university educa- 
tion, proof is presented of the democratic sense of our peo- 
ple rather than an argument against the supreme value of 
the best and most liberal education in high j)ublic position. 
There certainly can be no sufficient reason for any space or 
distance between the walks of the most classical education 
and the way that leads to political place. Any disinclina- 
tion on the part of the most learned and cultured of our 
citizens to mingle in public affairs, and the consequent 
abandonment of political activity to those wdio have but 
little regard for the student and scholar in politics, are not 
favorable conditions under a government such as ours, and 
if they have existed to a damaging extent very recent events 
appear to indicate that education and conservatism of the 
land are to be hereafter more plainly heard in expression of 
the popular will. Surely the splendid destiny which awaits 
patriotic effort in behalf of our country will be sooner 
reached if the best of our thinkers and educated men shall 
deem it a solemn duty of citizenslii]^ to actively and practi- 



448 BIOGBAPHY OF GBOVEB CLEVELAND. 

cally engage in political affairs, and if the force and power 
of their thought and learning shall be willingly or nnwill- 
ingly acknowledged in party management. If I am to 
speak of the President of the United States, I desire to 
mention the most pleasant and characteristic feature of our 
system of goyernment, the nearness of the people to their 
President and other high officials. The close view afforded 
our citizens of the acts and conduct of those to whom they 
have intrusted their interests serves as a regulator and 
check upon the temptation and pressure of office, and is a 
constant reminder that diligence and faithfulness are the 
measure of public duty, and such relations between the 
President and people ought to leave but little room in the 
popular judgement and conscience for unjust and false ac- 
cusations, and for malicious slanders invented for the pur- 
pose of undermining the people's trust and confidence in 
the administration of their government. No public officer 
should desire to check the utmost freedom of criticism as to 
all official acts, but every right-thinking man must concede 
that the President of the United States should not be put 
beyond the protection which America's love of fair play and 
deceiicy accords to every American citizen. 

'^ This trait of our national character would not encourage, 
if their extent and tendency were fully appreciated, the 
silly, mean and cowardly lies that every day are found in the 
columns of certain newspapers which violate every instinct 
of American manliness, and in ghoulish glee desecrate every 
sacred relatian of private life. There is nothing in the 
highest office that the American people can confer which 
necessarily makes their President altogether selfish, schem- 
ing and untrustworthy. On the contrary, the solemn duties 
which confront him tending to a sober sense of the respon- 
sibility, trust of the American people and appreciation of 
their mission among nations of the earth, should make him 
a patriotic man, and tales of distress which reach him from the 
humble and lowly and needy and afflicted in every corner of 



BIOGRAPHY OF GROVEB CLEVELAND. 449 

the land cannot fail to quicken within him every kind im- 
pulse and tender sensibility. After all, it comes to this : The 
people of the United States have one and all a sacred mis- 
sion to perform, and your President, not more surely than 
any other citizen who loves his country, must assume a part 
of the responsibility of demonstrating to the world the suc- 
cess of popular government. No man can hide his talent 
in a napkin, and escape condemnation. His slothfulness 
deserves not to evade the stern sentence which his faithless- 
ness invites. 

'^ Be assured, my friends, that the privileges of this day, 
so full of improvement and enjoyments, of this hour, so 
full of pleasure and cheerful encouragements, will never be 
forgotten, and in parting with you now let me express an 
earnest hope that Harvard ^s Alumni may always honor the 
venerable institution which has honored them, and that no 
man who forgets or neglects his duty to American citizen- 
ship shall find his Alma Mater here.^'' 

At the dedication of the monument to ex-President 
Garfield erected on the Capitol grounds on May 12th, 1887, 
he said : 

'^ Fellow-Citizens : In performance of the duty assigned 
to me on this occasion I hereby accept, on behalf of the 
people of the United States, this completed and beautiful 
statue. 

" Amid the interchange of fraternal greetings between 
the survivors of the army of the Cumberland and their 
former foes upon the battlefield, and while the Union Gen- 
eral and the people^s President awaited burial, the common 
grief of these magnanimous soldiers and mourning citizens 
found expression in the determination to erect this tribute 
to American greatness; and thus to-day in its symmetry 
and beauty, it presents a sign of animosities forgotten, an 
emblem of a brotherhood redeemed, and a token of a nation 
restored. 

'^Monuments and statues multiply throughout the land. 



450 BIOGBAPHY OF GMOVEB CLEVELAND. 

fittingly illustrative of the love and affection of our grateful 
people and commemorating brave and ^^atriotic sacrifices in 
war, fame in peaceful pursuits, or honor in public station. 

'^ But from this day forth, there shall stand at our seat 
of government this statue of a distinguished citizen, who 
in his life and services combined all those things, and more, 
which challenge admiration in American character — loving 
tenderness in every domestic relation, bravery on the field 
of battle, fame and distinction in our halls of legislation, 
and the highest honor and dignity in the Chief Magistracy 
of the nation. 

^' This stately effigy shall not fail to teach every beholder 
that the source of American greatness is confined to no con- 
dition, nor dependent alone for its growth and develop- 
ment upon favorable surroundings. The genius of our 
national life beckons to usefulness and honor those in every 
sphere, and offers the highest preferment to manly ambi- 
tion and sturdy, honest effort, chastened and consecrated by 
patriotic hopes and aspirations. As long as this statue 
stands, let it be proudly remembered that to every American 
citizen the way is open to fame and station, until he — 

" ' Moving lip from higher to higher, 

Becomes on Fortune's crowning slope 
The pillar of a people's hope, 
The center of a World's desire.' 

^^ Nor can we forget that it also teaches our people a sad 
and distressing lesson ; and the thoughtful citizen who 
views its fair proportions cannot fail to recall the tragedy 
of a death which brought grief and mourning to every 
household in the land. But while American citizenship! 
stands aghast and affrighted that murder and assassination] 
should lurk in the midst of a free people and strike! 
down the head of their government, a fearless search and] 
the discovery of the origin and hiding-place of these hateful] 
and unnatural things should be followed by a solemn] 
resolve to purge forever from our political methods ah( 



BIOGBAPHY OF GllOVER CLEVELAND. 451 

from the operation of our government, tlie perversions and 
misconceptions which give birth to passionate and bloody 
thoughts. 

^' If from this hour our admiration for the bravery and 
nobility of American manhood and our faith in the possi- 
bilities and opportunities of American citizenship be re- 
newed ; if our appreciation of the blessing of a restored 
Union and love for our government be strengthened, and if 
our watchfulness against the dangers of a mad chase after 
partisan spoils be quickened, the dedication of this statue 
to the people of the United States will not be in vain." 

Invited to address the people of Clinton, !N"ew York, on 
its one-hundredth anniversary, and amidst those who had 
known him in early boyhood, he spoke as follows : 

'^ I am by no means certain of my standing here among 
those who celebrate the centennial of Clinton's existence as 
a village. My recollections of the place reach backward 
but about thirty-six years, and my residence here covered a 
very brief period. But these recollections are fresh and dis- 
tinct to-day, and pleasant, too, though not entirely free from 
somber coloring. 

'^It was here in the school, at the^foot of College Hill, 
that I began my preparation for college life and enjoyed the 
anticipation of a collegiate education. We had but two 
teachers in our school. One became afterward a judge in 
Chicago, and the other passed through the legal profession 
to the ministry, and within the last two years was living 
further West. I read a little Latin with two other boys in 
the class. I think I floundered through four books of the 
'^neid.' The other boys had nice, large, modern editions 
of Virgil, with big print and plenty of notes to help one 
over the hard places. Mine was a little, old-fashioned copy, 
which my father used before me, with no notes, and which 
was only translated by hard knocks. I believe I have for- 
given those other boys for their persistent refusal to allow 
me the use of the notes in their books. At any rate, they 



452 BIOGRAPHY OF GBOVEB CLEVELAND, 

do not seem to have been overtaken by any dire retribution, 
for one of them is now a rich and prosperous lawyer in Buf- 
falo, and the other is a professor in your college and the 
orator of to-day^s celebration. The struggles with ten lines 
of Virgil, which at first made up my daily task, are amus- 
ing as remembered now ; but with them I am also forced to 
remember that, instead of being the beginning of the higher 
education for which I honestly longed, they occurred near 
the end oi my school advantages. This suggests a disap- 
pointment which no lapse of time can alleviate, and a depri- 
vation I have sadly felt with every passing year. 

^^I remember Benoni Butler and his store. I don't 
know whether he was an habitual poet or not, but I heard 
him recite one poem of his own manufac^ture which 
embodied an account of a travel to or from Clinton in 
the early days. I can recall but two lines of this poem, 
as follows : 

*' 'Paris Hill next came m sight, 
And there we tarried over night.' 

^'^I remember the next-door neighbors. Doctors Bissell 
and Scollard, and good, kind neighbors they were, too ; not 
your cross, crabbed kind, who could not bear to see a boy 
about. It always seemed to me that they drove very 
fine horses ; and for that reason I thought they must be 
extremely rich. 

'*I don't know that I should indulge further recollec- 
tions that must seem very little like centennial history, but 
I want to establish, as well as I can, my right to be here. 
I might speak of the college faculty, who cast such a pleas- 
ing though sober shade of dignity over the place, and who, 
with other educated and substantial citizens, made up the 
best of social life. I was a boy then, and slightly felt 
the atmosphere of this condition, but, notwithstanding, I 
believe I absorbed a lasting appreciation of the intelligence 
and refinement which made this a delightful home. 

'' I know that you will bear with me, my friends, if I yield 



BIOGRAPHY OF GROVER CLEVELAND, 453 

to the impulse which the mention of liome creates and 
speak of my own home here, and how, through the memories 
which cUister about it, I may claim a tender relationship to 
your village. Here it was that our family circle entire, 
parents and children, lived day after day in loving and 
affectionate converse, and here for the last time we met 
around the family altar and thanked God that our house- 
hold was unbroken by death or separation. We never met 
together in any other home after leaving this, and death 
followed closely our departure. And thus it is that as with 
advancing years I survey the havoc death has made, and the 
thoughts of my early home become more sacred, the remem- 
brance of this pleasant spot, so related, is revived and 
chastened. I can only add my thanks for the privilege of 
being with you to-day, and wish for the village of Clinton 
in the future a continuation and increase of the blessings of 
the past." 

At the centennial celebration of the Constitution in Phila- 
delphia, September 17th, 1887, he said : 

" Every American citizen should on this centennial day 
rejoice in his citizenship. He will not find the cause of his 
rejoicing in the antiquity of his country, for among the 
nations of the earth his stands with the youngest. He will 
not find it in the glitter and the pomp that bedeck a mon- 
arch and dazzle abject and servile subjects, for in this coun- 
try the people themselves are the rulers. He will not find 
it in the story of bloody foreign conquests, for his govern- 
ment has been content to care for its own domain and peo- 
ple. He should rejoice because the work of framing our 
Constitution was completed one hundred years ago to-day, 
and because, when completed, it established a free govern- 
ment. He should rejoice because this Constitution and gov- 
ernment have survived with so many blessings, and have 
demonstrated so fully the strength and value of popular 
rule. He should rejoice in the wondrous growth and 
achievements of the past one hundred years^ and also in the 



454 BIOGRAPHY OF GROVEB CLEVELAND. 

glorious promise of the Constitution through centuries to 
come. We shall fail to be duly thankful for all that was 
done for us one hundred years ago unless we realize the 
difficulties of the work then in hand, and the dangers 
avoided in the task of forming 'a more perfect union ^ 
between disjointed and inharmonious states, with interests 
and opinions radically diverse and stubbornly maintained. 
The perplexities of the convention which undertook the 
labor of preparing our Constitution are .apparent in these 
earnest words of one of the most illustrious of its members : 
^ The small progress we have made after four or five weeks 
of close attendance and continued reasoning with each 
other, our different sentiments on almost every question — 
several of the last ^^I'oducing as many noes as yeas — is, 
methinks, a melancholy proof of the imperfection of the 
human understanding. We, indeed, seem to feel our want 
of political wisdom, since we have been running about in 
search of it. We have gone back to ancient history for 
models of government and examined the different forms of 
those republics which, having been formed with the seeds 
of their own dissolution, now no longer exist. In this situ- 
ation of this assembly, groping, as it were, in the dark to 
find political truth, and scarce able to distinguish it when 
presented to us, how has it happened, sir, that we have 
heretofore not once thought of humbly applying to the 
Father of Light to illuminate our understanding ? ' 

'■''And this wise man, proposing to his fellows that the 
aid and blessing of God should be invoked in their extrem- 
ity, declared : ' I have lived, sir, a long time, and the 
longer I live the more convincing proof I see of the truth 
that Grod governs in the affairs of men. And if a spar- 
row cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is 
it probable that an empire can rise without His 
notice? We have been assured, sir, in the sacred 
writings, that except the Lord build the house, they labor 
in vain that build it. I firmly believe this, and I also believe 



BIOGBAPHY OF GROVEB CLEVELAND. 455 

that without His concurring aid we shall succeed iu this 
political building no better than the building of Babylon. 
We shall be divided by our little partial interests, our proj- 
ects shall be confounded, and we ourselves shall become a 
reproach and byword down to future ages ; and, what is 
Avorse, mankind may, hereafter from this unfortunate in- 
stance, desj)air of establishing governments by human 
wisdom and leave it to chance, war and conquest/ 

^'' In the face of all discouragements the fathers of the 
Republic labored on for four weary, long months in alter- 
nate hope and fear, but always with rugged resolve, never 
faltering in a sturdy endeaver sanctified by a prophetic sense 
of the value to posterity of their success, and always with 
unflinching faith in the principles which make the founda- 
tion of a government by the people. At last their task was 
done. It is related that upon the back of the chair occu- 
pied by Washington as president of the convention a sun 
was painted, and that as the delegates were signing the com- 
pleted Constitution one of them said : ' I have often and 
often, in the course of the session, and in the solitude of my 
hopes and fears as to its issue, looked at that sun behind the 
president without being able to tell whether it was rising or 
setting. But now at length I know that it is a rising and 
not a setting sun.^ We stand to-day on the spot where this 
rising sun emerged from political night and darkness, and 
in its own bright meridian light we mark its glorious way. 
Clouds have sometimes obscured its rays and dreadful storms 
have made us fear, but God has held it on its course, and 
through its life-giving warmth has perform.ed His latest 
miracle in the creation of this wondrous land and people. 
As we look down that past century to the origin of our Con- 
stitution ; as we contemplate its trials and its triumphs ; as 
we realize how completely the principles upon which it is 
based have met every national peril and every national 
deed, how devoutly should we confess with Franklin, ' God 
governs in the affairs of men,^ and how solemn should be 



456 BIOGBAPHY OF GBOVEJR CLEVELAND. 

the reflection that to onr hands is committed this ark of the 
people^s covenant^ and that ours is the duty to shield it from 
impious hands. We receive it sealed with the tests of a cent- 
ury. It has been found sufficient in the past, and in all 
the future years it will be found sufficient if the American 
people are true to their sacred trust. ■'^ 

The National Democratic Convention of 1888 met in 
St. Louis, Missouri, June 5th, 1888, and was called to order 
by the chairman, W. H. Barnum, of Connecticut. On the 
second day of the convention Crover Cleveland was nomi- 
nated by acclamation as the Democratic nominee for 
President. His nomination was followed by a scene that 
beggars description. Men went wild with enthusiasm. The 
nomination was in strict accord with the wishes of the 
party,, and was received with universal favor. In accordance 
with Mr. Cleveland's wishes, the campaign was conducted 
on the issue of tariff reform, as laid down in his message to 
Congress, December 6th, 1887, and which is given elsewhere 
in this book. In the election Mr. Cleveland was defeated. 
In the electoral college Mr. Harrison carried twenty states, 
with two hundred thirty-three votes, while Mr. Cleveland 
carried eighteen states with one hundred sixty-eight votes. 

The popular vote was as follows : 

Cleveland, Dem 5,538,560 

Harrison, Kep 5,441,902 

Fish, Pro 249,937 

Streeter, Labor 147,521 

It will be seen, therefore, that Mr. Cleveland received 
96,658 more votes than Mr. Harrison, but owing to our cum- 
brous and unfair system of voting by states, was defeated 
against the will of the people. 

After his retirement from the office of President, Mr. 
Cleveland removed to New York and resumed the practice 
of the law. Although he sought to avoid public gatherings, 
the people would not allow it. He has been looked upon as 



BIOGBAPHY OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 457 

the leader of his party, and his views upon political issues 
have had great influence upon those of his political faith. 

Among his recent utterances, his letter of Feb. 10th, 189^, 
to the business men^s meeting of New York, in opposition 
to the free coinage of silver, attracted wide attention and 
plainly showed where he stood upon that question. He 
said : 

^' It surely cannot be necessary for me to make a formal 
expression of my agreement with those who believe that 
the greatest perils would be invited by the adoption of the 
scheme now pending in Congress, for the unlimited coinage 
of silver at our mints. If we have developed an unexpected 
capacity for the assimilation of a largely increased volume of 
the currency, and, even if we have demonstrated the useful- 
ness of such an increase, these conditions fall far short of in- 
suring us against disaster if, in the present situation we enter 
upon the dangerous and reckless experiment of free, unlim- 
ited and independent silver coinage." 

Mr. Cleveland has observed the same modesty in pushing 
his claims for the Presidency the present year that has 
marked his previous career. !N"otwithstanding his popu- 
larity and the high position he occupies in public esteem, 
he has even doubted the advisability of his own nomination. 
In a letter addressed to James H. Bible, of Chattanooga, in 
April last, he said upon this point : 

" I am exceedingly anxious to have our party do the right 
thing at the Chicago convention, and I hope that the dele- 
gates will be guarded by judgment and actuated by true 
Democratic spirit and the single desire to succeed on 
principle. 

'' I should not be frank if I did not say to you that I often 
fear I do not deserve all the kind things such friends as you 
say of me, and I have frequent misgivings as to the wisdom 
of again putting me in nomination. I therefore am anxious 
that sentiment and too unmeasured personal devotion should 
be checked when the delegates reach the period of delibera- 



458 BIOGEAPHY OF GEOVER CLEVELAND. 

tion. In any event, there will be no disappointment for me 
in the result/^ 

Mr. Cleveland's home life has been particularly happy. 
The beauty, tact, grace, amiable disposition and womanly 
qualities which made Mrs. Cleveland so popular in the 
"White House shine none the less brightly in the narrower 
and more sacred limits of her own home. With unswerving 
faith in her husband, she devotes herself to home duties with 
that energy and good sense which has always characterized 
her. 

In October last an infant daughter came to gladden their 
hearts and home and fill to overflowing their cup of happi- 
ness. Baby Ruth, as she is called, bids fair to contest her 
mother's place in the hearts of the people. No less interest 
has been shown in her than in her parents. At the recent 
conventions badges bearing ^^Baby Ruth'' were seen in 
profusion, testifying to the strong- hold Mr. Cleveland and 
his family have upon the people. 

PEESOiq"AL QUALITIES AKD EEMINISCENCES. 

Mr. Cleveland is a tremendous worker. As Governor of 
New York State he was at his desk early and late. Half- 
past eight in the morning found him there, and, in the busy 
days, midnight also found him there. It was no unusual 
thing to come across that portly figure at one or two o'clock 
in the morning on his way from his office to the executive 
mansion, half a mile away. When the weather was warm 
Mr. Cleveland was not ashamed to strip for his work, and 
to sit at his desk coatless, while a throng of visitors filed in 
and out of the immense chamber, and cast sly glances at 
^^ the great commoner.'^ Judge Bissell, Cleveland's former 
law partner at Buffalo once said : '^ Mr. Cleveland is the 
most industrious man I ever knew in my life. He does not 
get to things quickly, but will sit up all night, if necessary, 
to study a law case. In his official duties he is the same 
miracle of labor. He will plant himself directly before a 



BIOGBAPHY OF GBOVEB CLEVELAND. 459 

matter and stick to it until he is through, if it takes him 
day and night. He is a good speaker, with a rather shrill 
voice, convincing rather than eloquent in his manner. He 
always prepares himself before he speaks. Money is the 
last thing which troubles him. The first law case he had 
in the office, a woman came to him about an imperfect mort- 
gage of hers, and he got interested in her case and lifted 
the mortgage for her, and it has never yet been paid off by 
the woman. 

'^ Mr. Cleveland," said a recent issue of the KVodinj Argus, 
^' has been a constant student all his life. His are faculties 
which hunger for and delight in study always. He has a 
capacious and clear understanding. His is the intuitive 
instinct of the quick and alert observer, as well as the 
careful habit of the conscientious investigator. He has 
great application, which is another name for will-power. 
He has also a discriminating taste. He distinguishes 
between things. He selects the best. His imagination is a 
marked' aid. It enables him to vivify facts by pictorializing 
them. He has a memory that is marvelous. A fact, a 
person, a principle, or a sentiment, in prose or verse, never 
passes before him without being stereotyped on his recollec- 
tion. He can repeat pages of poetry or prose after a single 
reading. He cannot account for this power. He recognizes 
it, and utilizes it, but he is careful to make it his servant, 
not his master. It is noteworthy that he remembers prose 
substantially, and poetry literally. The rhythm and music 
of the latter chain and charm his mind. Long after he has 
forgotten who the author of some noble or diverting verses 
is, and when he cannot recall when he learned them, he can 
repeat them with correctness and admirable feeling, if only 
some event or some incident in conversation makes them 
apposite. Those nearest to him find that his mind is stored 
with these gems of the muses. An omnivorous reader, he 
retains the substance of facts, but the words and forms of 
ideas of beauty are treasured by him. His wit is pene- 



460 BIOGRAPHY OF GBOVER CLEVELAND. 

trating, and quiet in its play. It is never made by him the 
servant of malice. It is emjoloyed to aid fancy ; it is used 
to light np some dark place with its disclosing beam ; it is 
resorted to as a swift means of exposing sophistry, or j)re- 
tense, or humbug ; it is availed of to bring out truth by 
surprise or contrast ; but it is never enlisted in a work of 
causing or reflecting hatred, or of holding up to ridicule the 
misfortunes or infirmities of others. He has a benevolent 
heart, and is incapable of using his faculties for malevolent 
purposes. The work he has done in large trusts has made 
the country familiar with his qualities as a reformer and a 
statesman. The personal man, as revealed to his friends, 
and as imperfectly sugested in what we have written, has a 
simplicity of nature and a sterling quality of self-reliance, 
modesty and courage, which prevent either station from 
inflating or responsibility from appalling him." 

While studying law in Buffalo, he boarded with his uncle. 
The walk to and from his nucleus was a long and, at that 
time, a rugged one. The first winter was a memorably 
severe one, and his shoes were broken, and he had no over- 
coat. But he never intermitted a day. It began to be 
noticed that he was the most punctual and regular of the 
lads in the office. Often at night he was compelled to 
stand by the warm chimney in the loft where he slept and 
dry his feet, after tramping the two miles through the 
snow. His senior employer had taken a copy of Black- 
stone, on the first day of the boy^s office experience, and, 
planting it before him, said : " That's where they all 
begin." There was a titter ran round the little circle of 
clerks, for it was a foreboding thing to begin with to the 
average lad. It appears, however, that he stuck to Black- 
stone so well that he mastered it, and so absorbed was he in 
it that they locked him in, and all went oif . He spent that 
night with the book, and never forgot it. 

'' See here,"^ said his uncle to him one bitter December 
night, when the lad had walked out to Black Kock through 



BIOGRAPHY OF GROVEB CLEVELAND. 461 

the sleet and snow, ' ' this is pretty cold weather for you to 
be traveling without an overcoat/^ 

'^ Oh/' says the young man, " I'm going to buy one when 
I earn the money." 

'' Why, look at your feet ; they must be sopping, eh ?" 

'^ Oh, that's nothing. I'm getting some copying to do 
now, and I'll have a pair of boots by and by." 

'^ You Just go right over there to the tailor's and get the 
stoutest overcoat he's got. D^ye hear ? " 

Said one of his associates recently : ^' Grover Avon our 
admiration by his three traits of indomitable industry, un- 
pretentious courage, and unswerving honesty. I never saw 
a more thorough man at anything he undertook. What- 
ever the subject was, he was reticent until he had mastered 
all its bearings and made up his own mind — and then 
nothing could swerve him from his conviction. It was this 
quality of intellectual integrity more than anything else, 
perhaps, that made him afterward listened to and respected 
when more brilliant men, who were opposed to him, were 
applauded and forgotten." 

Dr. D. P. Hutchinson, an old resident of Fayetteville, 
who had an office in Deacon McViccar's store when G-rover 
was a clerk there, when asked for some reminiscences of the 
Governor's boyhood, said that '''Grove," as they used to 
call him, was always considered a good boy, courteous and 
dignified in his manners, and was exceedingly poj^ular. 
He held his position in the store about one year. He made 
an efficient clerk, and was highly recommended by Mr. 
McViccar when he left the latter's employ. 

H. Howard Edwards, also a long resident, said there 
was nothing during the time he lived here to indicate his 
future distinction. ''Why," said Mr. Edwards, "we 
used to be together constantly, go atishing together, sleep 
together, play and eat together, and I cannot recall any- 
thing that impressed me with his future greatness. He 
was very slim when he was a boy, short, and had small 



462 BIOGRAPHY OF GBOVEU CLEVELAND, 

features. He was full of fun, and, I tell you, we had lots 
of fun together/' 

Capt. H. S. Pratt, another old resident, said : " ' Grove' 
was one of the finest boys I ever knew. Everybody respected 
him, even the ^ old folks,' and you never heard of a prac- 
tical joke on him. He was chtick full of fun, and I recol- 
lect he had a great weakness for ringing the school bell 
when he got a chance. He and his brother ' Will ' used to 
have a long rope attached to the hammer of the bell, and 
the way they used to make that bell ring after dark was a 
caution." 




ADLAI E. STEVENSON. 



BIOGRAPHY OF ADLAI E. STEVENSON. 



CHAPTER YII. 

Adlai Ewiis'G Steyej^-so:s" is a native of Kentucky, 
having been born in Christian county October 23, 1835. 
His father, John T. Stevenson^ was of Irish descent and a 
native of North Carolina, but removed to Kentucky in 
early life, and there engaged in farming, in which business 
he remained until young Adlai was about fifteen years of 
age, when he removed to Bloomington, 111. His mother^s 
maiden name was Ewing, from which comes Adlai^s second 
name. She was of Scotch origin, and thus we have united 
in the person of Mr. Stevenson the pluck, indomitable 
will and ability of the Irish, and the integrity, perseverance 
and shrewdness of the Scotch. He is a cousin of James 
L. Ewing, his law partner, and also of that distinguished 
Kentuckian, James A. McKenzie. 

Shortly after the removal of the family to Bloomington, 
111., the father died. This sad event threw much responsi- 
bility upon young Adlai. He was the eldest, a lad of seven- 
teen, and his mother turned to him for assistance in training 
and supporting the one daughter and five younger sons left 
to her care, and nobly did the young man respond to the 
call. All thoughts of self were forgotten, and his whole 
efforts were given to the task before him. Old farmers, his 
neighbors when a boy, tell of the industry and good judg- 
ment he displayed at that time. He was his mother's coun- 
selor and support. Every question pertaining to the man- 
agement of affairs and to the children was referred to him 
by his mother, and she gratefully acknowledges his assist- 

465 



466 BIOGRAPHY OF ABLAI E. STEVENSON. 

ance at this late day. It is needless to say that this work 
was well done. The five brothers are successful business 
men, and the sister happily married long ago. The young- 
est brother. Fielding, follows the avocation of his father and 
manages a large farm. near the old home. 

Although young Adlai devoted himself so earnestly to the 
support of the family upon his father^s death, he did not 
give up the idea of thoroughly preparing himself for the 
duties of life. 

He was for a time a student at the Illinois Wesleyan Uni- 
versity, where he acquitted himself in a creditable manner. 
Having finished the course of study here, he cast about for a 
broader school in which to continue his studies. Early in 
the 50^s he had joined the Presbyterian church of which his 
uncle was pastor. It is not strange that he listened to his 
nucleus advice and decided to attend the good old Presby- 
terian Center College, at Danville, Ky. 

Center was then at the height of its fame as an educa- 
tional institution. There were no railroads running into 
Danville, and Adlai made the trip on horseback. But the 
town was the Athens of the South. Its people were refined 
and educated. They were proud of their college, and opened 
the doors of their homes to its students. For 12.50 a week 
a good room, with board, washing and mending, was obtain- 
able. 

It will be seen that the expenses of the young Kentuckian 
were hardly up to the standard of the modern collegian. 
Adlai paid his own way through college with money earned 
by teaching school at $30 a month and ^^ boarding round ^' 
in McLean county. Among his classmates in college were 
Col. William C. Breckinridge, Thomas W. Crittenden, John 
Young Brown and Senator Joseph Blackburn. Each one 
of these distinguished men used his influence in the recent 
convention to secure the nomination of Gen. Stevenson. It 
is iDteresting to note that Gen. Stevenson and President 



BIOGRAPHY OF ADLAI E. STEVENSON. 467 

Harrison, the leader on the opposing ticket, are members of 
the same Greek letter fraternity. Phi Delta Theta. 

After graduating he returned to Bloomington and studied 
law with Robert E. Williams, of that city, and was admitted 
to the bar in 1858. 

After his admission to the bar he located in Metamora, 
Woodford county. 111., and there practiced law for ten 
years. 

It meant something to be a lawyer in those days in cen- 
tral Illinois. The memory of Lincoln and McDougal and 
all that host of giants was still a living entity in Blooming- 
ton. The young attorneys, as they rode the circuit on 
horseback, were inspired by the memory of the great men who 
had gone just before them. Bob Ingersoll was then prac- 
ticing law at Peoria. A shiftless young advocate he was, 
with a natural gift of humor as his strongest characteristic. 
In those days "Pope Bob" — not yet elevated to the infi- 
delic pontificate — had one trait which he has since gotten 
bravely over. He was noted for his indifference to the fee 
end of a law case. He would try important cases for redic- 
ulously small sums, and seemed quite indifferent whether 
he collected even the paltry fees which he charged. 

The first case which young Stevenson got after he hung out 
his shingle at Matamora, Woodford county, was a damage 
suit, which he rode eight miles on horseback to try before a 
country justice of the peace. He won the case, and his fee 
was 15. The money paid his board bill for two weeks, and 
it was nearly a month before the young lawyer got his second 
case. At that time G-en. Stevenson^s law library was worth 
about $25. Most of the books in it were borrowed from his 
old preceptor, R. F. Williams. Among them was the copy 
of Blackstone, which he pored over every evening even after 
he had been admitted to the bar. The first year his prac- 
tice amounted to $500, and, when, two years later, it had 
almost doubled, the young lawyer felt that he was growing 
wealthy very rapidly. 



468 BIOGBAPHY OF ADLAI E. STEVENSON, 

He held the office of Master in Chancery in Metamora 
for four years, being appointed to it by Samuel L. Richmond, 
Judge of the Circuit Court. In 1864 he was elected to the 
office of State's Attorney in the old Twenty-third Judicial 
District, of which Woodford county was a part. The 
district at that time was largely Republican, but he was 
nevertheless triumphant over his adversary, Perley. After 
his term of State's Attorney had expired, Mr. Stevenson, 
in 1868, returned to Bloomington, and there formed a law 
partnership with James S. Ewing. The law firm of Steven- 
son & Ewing has been engaged in active practice both in 
the federal and state courts for over twenty-four years, and, 
during that time, has had the management of most impor- 
tant litigation, being recognized as one of the leading law 
firms in the state. 

At the present time the firm occupies a suite of plain 
rooms on one of the side streets of Bloomington, but their 
practice is one of the largest in the country. Gen. Steven- 
son's particular apartment is the smallest of the four. It is 
almost filled by a huge desk, which is littered with papers 
in typical legal fashion. When he is in Bloomington he 
spends the larger part of each day in the little den with his 
books and papers. He has been particularly successful as a 
jury advocate, and he has conducted the defense in many 
noted criminal cases. 

But, in the midst of his political and legal labors, G-en. 
Stevenson has found time to enrich his mind with the 
treasures of polite literature. He has turned from Black- 
stone to Shakspeare, whom he prizes above all others, and 
has read the novels of Dickens and Bulwer until they are at 
his finger's ends. 

Among the poets Bobby Burns, the poet of the people, is 
his favorite. He, perhaps, comes by a love of the '^'^bard of 
auld Scotia" through the ties of blood, for the Stevenson 
family boasts of a long line of sturdy Scotch-Irish ancestry. 
Gren. Stevenson's great-granduncle, Dr. Brevard, was the 



mOGRAPHY OF ADLAI E. STEVENSON. 469 

author of the famous Mecklenburg declaration of independ- 
ence, which was adopted ]May 2G, 1775, more than a year 
before the great document which cut off the remainder of 
the colonies from allegiance to Great Britain. With such 
bleod in his veins it is no wonder that Gen. Adlai Steven- 
son has lived a sturdy, honest life, always in touch with the 
liberty-loving masses. It may be also that to the effects of 
the good training brought down from such a line of ances- 
tors the almost ideal home life of the Stevensons is due. 

He was nominated for Congress by the Democratic party 
in 1874, in the Bloomington district. The sitting member 
was then Gen. John McNulta, one of the best Republican 
orators and politicians in the state. After a very exciting 
canvass of the district, Mr. Stevenson was elected by 1,200 
majority. McNulta two years before had carried the dis- 
trict by over three thousand. In Congress, during the 
Hayes and Tilden contest, Mr. Stevenson took part in the 
discussion and advocated the establishment of the electoral 
tribunal. The decision of this tribunal prevented Con- 
gress from going behind the returns in Louisiana and 
Florida in order to ascertain for which set of electors these 
states had voted, and Mr. Stevenson opposed any attempt 
at filibustering by the Democrats in the House and insisted 
that the decision of the tribunal should stand, and that the 
peace of the country was of more importance than the 
triumph of any party. 

Just before the final vote on this all important question 
was taken Mr. Stevenson secured the floor, and, under the 
rule limiting the time of speaking to five minutes, made an 
argument which had a marked influence on the House. Mr. 
Stevenson was a candidate for re-election after his first term 
had expired, but was defeated in a district more strongly 
Eepublican than before by about two hundred votes. Hayes 
carried the district by over three thousand majority. General 
Stevenson was renominated by the Democrats in 1878 and 
elected over his former opponent. Judge Tipton, by a 



470 BIOGRAPHY OF ADLAI E. STEVENSON. 

majority of 1,800. He was defeated for re-election in 1880 
and practiced law until 1884. 

His election to Congress in a district strongly Republican 
is the best evidence we can adduce as to the esteem in which 
he is held by those who know him best. It is an interesting 
fact in this connection to state that Mr. Stevenson rep- 
resented Abraham Lincoln's old constituency in Congress. 
The architect of his own fortunes, possessing ability, deter- 
mination and untiring industry, modest and unassuming 
in his daily life, courteous and genial in manner, pos- 
sessed of good common sense and a deep sympathy for the 
working classes, Mr. Stevenson, like Mr. Lincoln, drew the 
people to him, because they knew their interests would be 
safe in his hands. 

His record in Congress was clean, manly and able. No 
representative watched with more untiring zeal for the 
interests of his constituents than did Mr. Stevenson. His 
speechs upon the electoral commission in the case of Oregon 
is of deep interest, and is given here in part. He said: 

^^Mr. Speaker, when this Congress assembled in Decem- 
ber last, it witnessed the great American people from one 
end of the country to the other divided upon the question 
as to which candidate had been lawfully elected to the high 
office of President of the United States. The business 
industries of the country were paralyzed, public confidence 
destroyed, and the danger of civil war was imminent. That 
Mr. Tilden had received a majority of more than 200,000 of 
the popular vote was not disputed. This had secured him 
a majority of the presidential electors in the several states, 
and that he was lawfully entitled to be inducted into this 
great office was the firm belief of more than one-half of the 
people of this great country. The hour was one of great 
peril to our institutions, and many were apprehensive that 
we were but entering into the dark night of anarchy and 
confusion after many weeks of angry discussion, which 
resulted in still further arousing the passion of the people. 



BIOGRAPHY OF ADLAI E, STEVENSON. 471 

A measure of adjustment was proposed. It was believed 
that there was still patriotism enough left in the American 
Congress to vouchsafe an honorable and just settlement of 
tliis most dangerous question. You remember, sir, we all 
recall at this moment, how our hopes revived, and how 
gladly we hailed the introduction of the bill recommended 
by a joint committee of the Senate and House of Eepresent- 
atives. It was as the harbinger of peace by the people of 
this local country. Mr. Speaker, I gave that bill my earnest 
support. It had upon this great floor no friend more ardent 
in its advocacy than myself. I believed it to be a measure 
in the interest of peace. I believed that those who framed 
it, as well as those who gave it their support upon the floor, 
were honest in their statements that no man could afford to 
take the Presidency with a clouded title, and that the object 
of this bill was to ascertain which of the candidates was 
lawfully entitled to the electoral votes of Florida and Loui- 
siana. I never mistrusted for a moment that statesmen of 
so high repute, in so perilous an hour, upon so grave a ques- 
tion, would palter with words in a double sense. Mr. 
Speaker, we, who are the actors in this drama, and history, 
will report that the conference bill became a law, and the 
electoral commission was organized, not for the purpose of 
ascertaining which candidate had prima facie a majority of 
the electoral votes, not for the purpose of ascertaining that 
the Governor of Florida and the de facto Governor of Loui- 
siana had given certificates to the Hayes electors. 

" It was never dreamed that a tribunal, consisting in part 
of five judges of the highest court upon earth, whose sole 
duty was to report a fact known to every man in the land 
— that the returning board of Louisiana had given the 
votes of that state for the Hayes electors. I state, sir, now, 
in the presence of this House and of the country, that the 
avowed object of that bill was to ascertain which candidate 
had received a majority of the legal votes of those states ; 
the avowed object of the bill was to secure the ends of jus- 



472 BIOGBAPHY OF ADLAI E. STEVENSON. 

tice, to see that the will of the people was executed^ that 
the republic suffered no harm ; to see^ sir^ that the title of 
this great office was not tainted with fraud. How well this 
tribunal has discharged the sacred trust committed to them, 
let them answer to history. The record will stand, Mr. 
SjDcaker, that this tribunal shut its eyes to the light of 
truth ; refused to hear the undisputed proof of a majority 
of 7,060 legal votes in the state of Louisiana for Tilden, 
which was by a fraudulent returning board changed to 
8,000 majority for Hayes. The Republican representative 
from Florida, Mr. Purman, has solemnly declared upon this 
floor that Florida is for Tilden. I am not surprised that 
two distinguished Republican representatives from Massa- 
chusetts, Mr. Seely and Mr. Pierce, have, in such thrilling 
tones, expressed their dissent from the judgment of this 
tribunal by this decision. Fraud has become one of the 
legalized modes of securing the vote of a state. ''^ 

His loyalty to and his interest in the old soldiers have 
oeen proved on many occasions, and while in Congress he 
did not forget them. In a debate on the pension bill in the 
Forty-fourth Congress he said : 

^^Mr. Speaker, Congress has pursued a liberal policy 
toward the defenders of our Union in the late civil conflict. 
What has already been accomplished is but the earnest 
of a more substantial meed of justice to be awarded hereafter. 
I trust that neither this Congress nor any which may come 
after it will pursue other than the most generous policy 
toward the defenders of our republic. To provide for them 
when disabled by wound or disease, and for their families 
when dependent, is a sacred duty, an obligation imperative 
upon the government. It should be our policy, so clearly 
defined that all men may read, that he who perils his life in 
defense of this government is henceforth under its guardian 
care. I have, sir, upon more occasions than one urged upon 
this House the passage of the bill providing for the organ- 
ization of a commission, to the end that applicants for pen- 



BIOGRAPHY OF ADLAI E. STEVENSON. 473 

sions may have an early disposition of their cases. This 
will prevent vexatious delays — delays which have become 
intolerable. I had the honor at the beginning of this ses- 
sion to introduce a bill for the equalization of the bounties 
of Union soldiers^, which I trust may become a law before 
this Congress shall expire." 

In 1880^ when G-eneral Stevenson was a candidate for re- 
election to Congress, the late Senator David Davis was one 
of those who, outside of the party line, supported him. In 
an open letter, written during that campaign. Senator Davis 
said : 

" The soldier, the soldiery's widow and the soldier^s chil- 
dren have found in him a vigilant, a valuable and an untir- 
ing friend, whose influence and efforts have smoothed many 
sorrows.''^ 

He was elected a delegate to the National Democratic con- 
vention which nominated Cleveland, and took an active part 
in that campaign, canvassing the whole state. 

Soon after G-rover Cleveland's inauguration he was ten- 
dered the position of first assistant postmaster-general, 
which he accepted and held until the end of Mr. Cleve- 
land's term of office. That office gav^ Mr. Stevenson the 
appointment of all postmasters in the United States, whose 
compensation was less than $1,000, some 50,000 of them. 

It was in this capacity that Mr. Stevenson advocated the 
idea that there are enough good men in the Democratic 
party to fill the offices, and that under a Democratic admin- 
istration the offices should be filled by good Democrats. 

He used the official ax in a manner that won the approval 
of his party, though it must be admitted that President 
Cleveland did not take the same view that his party did. 

He also made the allowances to postoffices for necessary 
expenses. During his term Mr. Stevenson, in the absence 
of the postmaster-general, was acting postmaster-general, a 
contingency which arose quite frequently and for lengthy 
periods. 



474 BIOGBAPHY OF ADLAI E. STEVENSON. 

When Postmaster-General Wm. F. Vilas was made the 
Secretary of the Interior Mr. Stevenson indulged the laud- 
able hope that he would be promoted to the vacant position, 
but was disappointed in this. 

Mr. Stevenson took an active part in securing the world^s 
fair to Chicago. At the request of Mayor Oregier, Lyman 
J. Gage, Edwin Walker and other leading citizens of 
Chicago he visited a number of southern members of Con- 
gress, at their homes in the south, before the convening of 
the fifty-first Congress. During this tour he proved himself 
very efficient in overcoming the original prejudice of these 
southern members toward Chicago, their commercial and 
political affiliations and preferences having at first made 
them favor New York. 

He thus secured for Chicago a number of votes which 
would not have been secured otherwise, and which were 
necessary to secure the passage of the bill locating the fair 
in Chicago. At the recent Democratic state convention Mr. 
Stevenson was elected a delegate for the state at large, and 
by a unanimous vote of the convention he was placed at the 
head of the delegation and subsequently elected chairman 
by the delegation. 

Despite the abundant testimony at hand upon the ques- 
tion of Mr. Stevenson^s past record, he has been charged 
with disloyalty to the Union and a sympathizer with the 
Confederate cause in the late war. Mr. Stevenson needs 
no defense at our hands ; the people who know him, who 
have voted for him regardless of party ties, and who will 
vote for him again, will be the willing witnesses to his 
loyalty; but lest some idle, gossipping tongue should repeat 
the silly slanders, we introduce an interview reported by 
the Chicago Times not long ago : 

^^ Anyone, ^^ said Mr. Stevenson, *^^ who charges that at 
any time I have been disloyal to the Union charges what is 
absolutely false. When I first entered public life my ene- 
mies made that charge, as they do now. That was in 1874 



BIOGRAPHY OF ADLAI E. STEVENSON. 475 

(seventeen 3'ears ago), and. it should be remembered that 
the war, and all connected with it, were still very fresh in 
the public mind. 

^'^ I was running for Congress in a district which had a 
normal Republican majority of 3,000. It was a district 
which had been formerly represented by Abraham Lincoln, 
whose people had idolized him and the cause he stood for. 
These charges were made throughout the district. I entered 
an absolute denial, as I have done now. I declared that 
the charges were false, and that the people of the district 
stamped them as such by wiping out the Eepublican 
majority of 3,000 and electing me by over 1,000 plu- 
rality. That was the answer which the people of Lincoln's 
old district made to these charges. I cannot see how my 
denial can be made stronger. The statement that I was a 
member of the Knights of the Grolden Circle, I can say 
frankly, is an absolute falsehood. I never knew that such 
an organization existed except by what I have read in the 
newspapers. I never had any sympathy with its aims. 
I never belonged to any secret society but the old Phi Delta 
Theta College fraternity and the Freemasons. '* 

In this connection he got down a dusty red scrap-book 

and from it cut a copy of the letter from Colonel Sidwell, 

printed below: 

"Chicago, 111., Sept. 1, 1874. 

To THE Editor : — I have noticed in some of the Repub- 
lican papers of central Illinois a statement that the Hon. A. 
E. Stevenson, now a candidate for Congress in the Thir- 
teenth district, was, while a resident of Woodford county, 
a vile secessionist and a bitter opponent of the war. As a 
matter of simple justice to Mr. Stevenson, I desire to say 
that I know the statement to be wholly unfounded. I 
knew him intimately during the entire period of the war, 
and remember well that at the breaking out of the war he 
made a speech in favor of the suppression of the rebellion. 
In the month of August;, 1862^ I raised two companies in 



476 BIOGBAPHY OF ADLAI E. STEVENSON. 

Woodford county, which were afterward a part of the One 
Hundred and Eighth regiment of Illinois volunteers, of 
which regiment I was subsequently elected lieutenant 
colonel. At the time I was organizing the companies Mr. 
Stevenson went with me to different points in the country, 
and by public speeches and by his personal influence greatly 
assisted me in procuring enlistments. I never heard it inti- 
mated that his sympathies were in favor of the rebellion. 
He was, as I know, an ardent Douglas Democrat. In 1864 
Mr. Stevenson was a candidate for staters attorney, and was 
elected, although the district was overwhelmingly Repub- 
lican. Political excitement then ran righ, but it was never 
charged against him that he had been a sympathizer with 
the rebellion. By giving this a place in your paper you 
will greatly oblige. Yours truly, 

R. L. SlDWELL.^' 

But it would be idle to enumerate now the many occa- 
sions on which General Stevenson has given public expres- 
sion to his loyalty. The charges now dragged out of the 
darkness of oblivion by the desperate men who can find no 
vulnerable point in his record or his character were first 
used as political ammunition against him in the congressional 
campaign of 1864. They were answered then for all time 
when an ardently loyal constituency nearly reversed for him 
a normal Republican majority of 3,000. From that day 
until this, though General Stevenson meanwhile passed 
through five aggressive and hotly contested campaigns, 
these false charges have never been repeated. It is a happy 
augury for the success of the Democratic ticket that so early 
in the campaign the Republican press, in its efforts to villify 
and befoul the candidates of the people, is forced to revive 
such blackened and musty slanders, which were stamped 
with the brand of an Ananias nearly thirty years ago. 

It is claimed, too, that he has run as a Greenback candi- 
date for Congress. The facts are that, without being a 
(candidate, he has been three times nominated by indepen^- 



BIOGRAPHY OF ABLAI E. STEVENSON. 477 

ent conventions, in which Greenbackers, anti-Monopolists 
and other opponents of the Republican party had seats. 
In no case did General Stevenson accept such nomination, 
and in no case did he make the race until he had been either 
indorsed or nominated by the Democracy. Neither did he 
decline the nomination offered him by these independent 
conventions, but simply left matters in such shape that 
while abating nothing from his Democracy, all the men who 
were opposed to the common enemy, the Republican party, 
were free to vote for him. 

In no case did the platforms adopted by the independent 
conventions contain a currency inflation plank. In this 
matter General Stevenson has always been in line with his 
party. He has always been ready to give his services to the 
Democratic party. 

Beginning in 1864, when but 29 years old, as a McClel- 
land elector, his last labors were in 1888, when he delivered 
ten speeches in New York, besides covering the entire state 
of Illinois. Every four years for a third of a century the 
national committee of the Democracy has called upon him, 
and each time he has met the call in a manner which has 
won the plaudits of friends and enemies. 

General Stevenson was married in 1866 to Miss Letitia 
Green, daughter of Dr. Lewis AV. Green, an eminent Pres- 
byterian minister, who was president of Center College, 
Danville, Ky., up to the time of his death. 

It was in the spring term of his senior year that one even- 
ing, being invited to attend a reception at the residence of 
President Green of the college, the young student met the 
beautiful daughter of the president, who was destined in 
after years to reign as queen of his happy home. It was 
their first meeting, and it was their last for several years. 
But fate had already stretched the threads which were to 
bind them together for life. The death of young Stevenson's 
father within a month of that meeting called him back to 
^cLean county, where he plunged at once into the study 



478 BIOGRAPHY OF ABLAI E. STEVENSON. 

of law, half forgetting, perhaps, the brown-eyed daughter of 
the Bine-Grass state, whose stately beauty had caught his 
youthful fancy ; but Cupid, in spite of death and distance, 
has a way of working these things out, so it came to pass 
that after two years the father of pretty Miss Green also 
died, and she and her mother came to McLean county to 
live with her elder sister, Mrs. Mat Scott. 

There the acquaintance with the young lawyer recom- 
menced, ripening not long afterward into a romantic court- 
ship and a happy marriage. 

His family consists of his mother, aged eighty-three, his 
wife and four children, Lewis G., Mary, Julia and Letitia. 
His children are all handsome beyond the ordinary and 
very bright and intelligent looking. Lewis, the son, whose 
health was feeble for some time, has just returned from a 
trip to California, much improved in health. Mrs. Steven- 
son is a lady of refinement and of more than ordinary 
culture. The home life of Mr. Stevenson is the happiest 
and most harmonious, and he, as well as the children, 
idolize Mrs. Stevenson. 

The home is an eminently hospitable one, the latch-string, 
being always out for friends and neighbors, and there is 
never any formality to deter the timid and shy. 

The Stevenson house is an old one, having been built 
some twenty-five years ago, and was bought by the present 
owner after his return from Washington. It is of brick ; 
there is a spacious lawn around about it, and its location at 
the corner of Chestnut street, facing Franklin park, insures 
for it a plentiful supply of sunlight and air. There is a 
wide porch running around the front and the Chestnut 
street side, and comfortable chairs add to its exterior 
attractiveness. On the main floor is a vestibule of con- 
siderable depth and width, with a tall pier glass of the old- 
fashioned kind, big enough to reflect the whole of the vis- 
itor. To the left is the parlor, with its piano and piles of 
sheet music. Against the wall, in a prominent position, is 



BIOGEAFHY OF ABLAI E. STEVENSON. 479 

placed the fine oil ^^ortrait of Mrs. Stevensou^s father^ 
painted by Healj^ the Chicago artist. On an easel is placed 
a charming portrait in oil of Mary, the eldest daughter, as 
she appeared when two years old. Above it hangs a por- 
trait on porcelain of Mrs. Stevenson, while she was yet Miss 
Letty Green. 

All the furniture in the room was bought of local dealers 
and, while in good taste, it is simple. The carpet on the 
floor is of light hue and so are the hangings and draperies, 
thus making the total effect of the room cheerful and cozy. 
In the back parlor stands a walnut book-case well filled 
with books of standard authority. There is a large, framed 
photograph, taken in 1884 at Saratoga, of the notification 
committee, of which Mr. Stevenson was a member, just 
after discharging its mission to Vice-President Hendricks. 
On the other side of the vestibule is the library, comfortably 
furnished, and with some good etchings against the walls. 
The dining-room proper, from which a glass door leads into 
the open back of it, a kitchen and a sjjare room comprise 
the other first-floor rooms. Upstairs is a private library 
filled with 2,000 volumes, their contents being literary, 
legal and political, and then comes a series of bedrooms, all 
of them tastefully, but by no means luxuriously, furnished. 
Such, in brief, is the simple, hospitable home of Mr. 
Stevenson. 

One element of his strength with the party and with the 
delegates at the late national convention undoubtedly lies in 
the fact that while in office in Washington he behaved abso- 
lutely as the simple, unaffected, Jeff ersonian Democrat that 
he is. There was no messenger at his door, and no one had 
to wait in order td see and speak to him unless it was long 
enough to finish his business with the visitor of the time. 
He was tireless and conscientious, always at his office at 
8 in the morning, and frequently staying there until late at 
night. 

During the years that Adlai E. Stevenson has steadily and 



480 mOGBAPHY OF ADLAI JE. STEVEN SOlt. 

persistently climbed upward toward national fame and high 
party honors he has never lost touch and close feeling with 
the people^ the common, toiling people. He is as approach- 
able and simple in his tastes as he was when still struggling 
for success. Everybody in Bloomington knows him, and is 
glad to shake hands with him on the slightest provocation. 
When out walking a block or two he is always sure to be 
accosted by some humble friend who has a request to make, 
and he never fails to lend him his ear and his undivided 
attention. There are still men in his town who remember 
seeing him walk about barefooted, driving logs to his 
fathes^'s sawmill. That was when a boy of 15, and he does 
not attempt to hide the interesting fact even to-day. 




CALVIN S. BRICE. 



THE CHICAGO CONYENTION. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

FIRST DAY^S PROCEEDINGS. 

The Democratic National Convention was called to order 
Tuesday, June 21, 1892, at 12:43 o'clock, by Senator Brice, 
of the National Committee. The wigwam was roped in like 
a gigantic j^rize-ring and guarded by a strong cordon of 
police. The day was muggy, sticky, sweltering and rainy. 
Fully two hours before the time set for calling the conven- 
tion to order, crowds began to gather and climb the outside 
stairs, and a small army of deputy sergeants-at-arms was 
kept busy in piloting those fortunate enough to have tickets 
to their allotted places. The interior decorations were 
superb, but were partially lost in the immensity of space 
and depressing gloom which surrounded them. The wig- 
wam was constructed with a seating capacity of 19,000, with 
standing room for 1,000 more, and before the hour for 
opening nearly every available space was filled. 

As the last state delegation was seated. Chairman Brice 
came to the front of the platform, with gavel in hand, and 
said : " The convention will come to order. I have the 
pleasure of introducing Rev. John Rouse, who will open the 
proceedings with prayer." The Rev. Rouse invoked Divine 
guidance over the deliberations of the body, as follows : 

'^0, Almighty God, lord of heaven and great judge of all 
the earth, who hast created man in thine own image, that 
he may do thy will on earth as thy holy angels always do 
thy service in heaven, vouchsafe to send thy blessing upon 
these thy servants, that they may be governed by thy holy 

483 



484 THE CHICAGO CONVENTION. 

spirit to do all such things as are pleasing in thy sight. 
Fill them with wisdom and understanding, that truth and 
justice may be promoted by their consultations and piety 
and religion increased throughout this land. Let all bitter- 
ness and wrong, all angry and evil speaking, be put away 
from them, Avith all malice, that so they may discharge 
their duty to thee, to each other and to all men. We adore 
and magnify thy glorious name for all the blessings, many 
and great, that thou hast shoAvered upon this nation ; and 
we beseech thee to continue this loving kindness, that peace 
may abide and true liberty abound. 0, thou that hearest 
prayers, we are not worthy of the least of all of thy mercies, 
but hear thou. Lord, from heaven, thy dwelling place, and 
graciously hearken to these our supplications, which we 
make in the name and for the sake of thy Son, our Saviour, 
Jesus Christ. 

^^Our Father, who art in heaven ; hallowed be thy name, 
thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in 
heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us 
our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us ; 
and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, 
for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, 
forever and ever. Amen.^' 

At the conclusion of the prayer the secretary, under 
instructions from the chairman, presented the following 
names for the temporary organization : 

Temporary chairman — W. 0. Owens, Kentucky. 

Secretary — S. P. Sheerin, Indiana. 

Assistant secretaries — W. H. Doyle, Pennsylvania ; H. 
Shepard, Virginia ; C. Tilley, Missouri ; L. A. Rowley, 
Michigan ; R. E. Wilson, Mississippi ; 0. R. DeFreest, 
New York ; J. C. Swayne, Illinois. 

Principal reading clerk — Mcholas M. Bell. 

Sergeant-at-arms — R. J. Bright, Indiana. 

Official stenographer — Edward Dickinson, New York. 

The list was adopted and a committee appointed to escort 



THE CHICAGO CONVENTION'. 485 

the temporary cliairman to the platform. Upon his arrival, 
he was introduced by Chairman Brice, and delivered a tell- 
ing speech. He said : 

CHAIKMAJS" OWEK^S SPEECH. 

'^ Two great dangers menace the Democratic party. One 
is external, the other internal. The first is the organized 
machinery of organized capital, supported by the whole 
power of the government. The second is a tendency among 
Democrats to make issues among themselves. Two needs, 
therefore, stand before us indispensable to success : Unity 
and harmony. Of the one this chair and gavel stand 
representative ; it remains for you to supply the other. In 
this spirit I greet you, fellow Democrats, as the advance 
guard of a grand army, sent f oward to blaze a pathway to 
victory. How momentous is your responsibility 1 need not 
tell you. It your work be done in wisdom, the millions 
toiling in mine, and shop, and field, will rise and call you 
blessed. The roll-call of the republic attests that its heart 
and its conscience are with us in our war with the repre- 
sentatives of greed. The best thought of our party is a 
platform that challenges the approbation and invites the 
support of the people. We can succeed, we must do more ; 
we must deserve success ; above the wreck, if need be, of 
selfish combinations Ave must rear a temple to the plain 
people, and build a shrine so broad that there every lover of 
his kind may kneel. The burden must be lifted from the 
back of labor, and to that end it has a right to demand that 
whoever bears our banner must lift it above the smoke of 
conflict and the din of faction, that every Democrat of the 
Union may follow its lead in exultant and irresistible com- 
bat. Let us not mistake. The gravity of the situation 
demands the broadest patriotism and every needful sacrifice. 
Our work but begins here. Under the suns of summer and 
the frosts of autumn we must carry it forward with unfal- 
tering courage to a triumphant close. 



4^6 THE CHICAGO CONVENTION, 

'' This, again, must be a campaign of education. The 
' Study of the cornfield/ begun in the west and south, must 
be carried into every hamlet of the east and north. The 
people must learn their true relation to the tax-gatherer. 
They must learn that no railroad presidents champion the 
tribunes of the people ; that no taskmasters write our tariff 
bills. They must learn, too, that for personal and political 
advantage their country was menaced by the threat of war, 
and they will learn with shame and regret that the very day 
the war-like proclamation of their President was read in the 
halls of Congress the peaceful response of the little 8 by 10 
Republic of Chili, accepting the terms of the presidential 
ultimatum, was read in every capital of the world. 

'^ Our opponents must be measured by their deeds, and 
not by their professions. The Fifty-first Congress wrote 
the blackest page in our legislative history, and became a 
thing of the past. It challenged the approval of the people, 
and they responded in tone so portentous that it seemed the 
voice of Grod. With a unanimity that finds no parallel in 
the story of popular government they determined that a 
billion dollars was far too much to pay for such a museum 
of freaks. If we but permit it, they will stand by their ver- 
dict. That our cause may triumph let us work in kindness. 
In the heat of contention let us not forget that our political 
brother may be just as honest and perhaps better informed. 
Impelled by one purpose, and that purpose the the public 
good, we will free ourselves from the bickerings and heart- 
burnings that characterized the Eepublican party when 
its Marshal ^ey went down at Minneapolis before the mailed 
legions of the bread-and-butter brigade." 

One of the notable incidents of the proceedings was the 
resolution of sympathy to Hon. Jas. G. Blaine upon the 
death of his son Emmons. The resolution was offered by 
Mr. Cable, of Illinois, and was passed unanimously, show- 
ing that party feeling, however intense, disappears in the 
presence o£ the grim leveler. Death. Mr. Swett, of Maine, 



THE CHICAGO CONVENTION. 487 

briefly and feelingly thanked the convention on behalf of 
the citizens of his state. 

On motion of Gen. Bragg, of Wisconsin, the convention 
adjourned until Wednesday, 12 m. Immediately after 
adjournment the various committees met ; that on Per- 
manent Organization electing S. W. Fordyce, of Arkansas, 
as chairman ; that on Credentials electing J. E. Lamb, of 
Indiana, chairman, and F. C. Adams, of Florida, secretary ; 
that on Platform electing Thos. F. Bayard, chairman, and 
C. H. Jones, secretary. 

SECOis^D day's PR0CEEDI]S"GS. 

The convention was called to order at 12 m. by the chair- 
man. After prayer by Rev. A. H. Henry, the rejDort of 
the Committee on Credentials was called for. The com- 
mittee not being ready to report, the convention called for 
speeches, and was addressed by General Palmer, of Illinois, 
as follows : 

"^ Gentlemen of the convention, I find an honor thrust 
upon me very suddenly after coming into this great body. 
I think I am hardly treated with fairness. I have hardly 
had an opportunity of estimating this vast convention of 
Democrarts. Some years ago I was in Southern Illinois at a 
place called High Hill. Some men sat upon the fence a 
few yards from me, and a man said to me, ^Come up and 
say a few words to us.' I said, ^ I won't.' He said, ^ You 
will have to leave this township or else talk to us a little.' 
Yet I am impressed with this marvelous assembly. I am 
more impressed with its marvelous and most important 
mission, and its great principles are all apparent before me. 
It is a great and inspiring sight, that of the Democratic 
party assembled in national convention to select leaders in 
the contest which is before us. I think I have a right to 
point to my locks to-day and speak to this assenibly as one 
having experience at least, and I come urging you. I need 
not urge you to be patriotic and loyal to the Democracy, 



488 THE CHICAGO CONVENTION. 

urge you to take every expedient to secure harmony in our 
ranks, because there lies before us one of the most impor- 
tant political contests in which the country has been 
engaged for a quarter of a century. The great crucial con- 
test lies just before us, and unity is necessary. We should 
be governed by a common motive, engaged in a common 
mission, and work for a common end. 

" The welfare of the country is in your keeping. The 
great work of restoring the constitutional liberty of the 
country has devolved upon you. [Applause.] It is your 
work. And we will not allow any paltry subject of dispute, 
any matter of a personal character, to interpose when our 
country calls upon us in trumpet tones : ^ Come up to the 
work ! ' Shall we do it ? Let us be one — one in spirit, 
one in purpose, and let us be one in the great battle. Let 
there be no sulkers in the camp. Let us all work for the 
accomplishment of this great purpose. 

" I cannot afford to take your time now. I expect a har- 
monious result. The names that will be presen^d to you 
will be the names of patriotic men. Choose from among 
them he that will bear the banner aloft. You cannot make 
a mistake. Get a fair, unswerving, unalterable man — a 
Democrat that is in earnest — [Clapping of hands] — and 
put the flag in his hands, and unfurl it. [Loud applause, 
amidst which could be heard cries of Cleveland, Hill and 
Palmer. ] 

'^ Let me tell you that if the Democratic party and the 
country are deceived in this contest, it is not the fault of 
the Eepublicans at Minneapolis. They flung their banner 
to the breeze, and inscribed upon it, in bold terms, all that 
is odious in Republicanism. [Applause.] They have 
written upon its face a menace to the safety of the country 
— a new force bill. As sure as Benjamin Harrison is 
elected, and the next Congress is Eepublican, we will have 
a force bill such as the ingenuity of John Davenport or the 



THE CHICAGO CONVENTION. 489 

devil may suggest. [Loud applause aud clapping of 
hands.] 

" The Eepublicans at the Minneapolis convention have 
not attempted to deceive the country on the point. They 
declare their purpose, and if they succeed we will have no 
right to complain. They have told you what they mean 
to do ; they have told the country. After the election, if 
we are beaten, we will have no right to complain. They 
have written to the tariff — McKinleyism — more McKin- 
leyism than we have had before. The country is to be 
walled around by what is called protection. This great 
republic, with its 65,000,000 of inhabitants, with resources 
unsurpassed anywhere on earth, is to be fettered. Its 
wings are to be clipped, if I may use that expression. We 
are forbidden, our farmers are forbidden, higher markets. 
We must toil for the trusts and monopolies. They have 
warned us. If we submit to it, if the country submits, we 
have no right to complain. Gentlemen of the convention, 
do you want to go to work ? Do you want to liberate ? It 
is your duty to arm the country for this great contest. Do 
you want us to get up the platform — a platform plain and 
clear — no juggling of words? Let us have no trouble 
about interpretation. AYrite the platform on your banner, 
that every man may read and understand. [Applause.] 
Plain, that is democratic. [Applause.] After the nomina- 
tions are made, let us go to work. We expect these 
Illinois men to work as they never have worked before. 
[Applause and cheers.] I remember the time when I saw 
the prairie fire in our beloved state. I want to see this 
year in Illinois a fire fervent with the thunder of patriotism 
that will consume everything before it. That is how we 
are going to work in Illinois. [Applause and cheers.] 

^'^ We only ask you to give us good candidates, and our 
platform must be democratic. Blow the trumpet and 
Illinois will rally, will come as one man and will fight this 
great battle, and I shall expect to see in November that 



490 THE CHICAGO CONVENTION. 

Illinois has elected our admirable state ticket and has car- 
ried the state for the Democratic electoral ticket. [Long 
continued applause]. We do not intend to burn Chicago, 
but we will paint it amazingly red.''' [Laughter and 
applause. ] 

Shortly after the Committee on Credentials reported 
through Chairman Lamb as follows : 

'' In the case of Alabama the regular delegation is seated, 
while the contesting delegation is given seats upon the floor 
of this convention. In the Twenty-third and Twenty-fifth 
districts of Pennsylvania the regular delegates, as recom- 
mended by the National Committee, are given seats and 
votes upon the floor. In the state of Ohio, First district, 
the regular delegate, Mr. Barnhard, is seated. In the 
territory of Utah the regular delegation, recommended by 
the National Committee, Henry B. Henderson and John T. 
Caine, are given seats and votes upon the floor. In the 
territories of New Mexico and Arizona it was recommended 
by the National Committee that each be given six seats upon 
the floor of this convention. In view of the fact that these 
two territories have been debarred from the sisterhood of 
states in this Union upon the sole ground that they were 
Democratic, and in view of the further fact that a Demo- 
cratic House has already passed an enabling act to make 
them states of this Union, your committee unanimously 
adopts the recommendations of the National Committee and 
submits them for the approval of this convention." [Great 
cheering.] 

Mr. Lamb. I move the adoption of the report of the 
committee. [The motion was seconded by a number of 
delegates. ] 

The Chairman. The question is on the adoption of the 
report. [Loud cries of ^^ Question, question. '''] Those in 
favor of the adoption of that report will say "Aye." [A 
^torm of ayes followed.] The ayes have it; the report is 



THE CHICAGO CONVENTION. 491 

adopted. The next business is the report of the committee 
on permanent organization. 

THE PERMA:N^EXT ORGA]SriZATIOI^. 

Thereupon the report of the committee on permanent 
organization was presented as follows^ being read by Clerk 
Morrison : 

^^For chairman, W. L. Wilson, of West Virginia. [Great 
applause. ] 

'^For secretary, Simon P. Sheerin, of Indiana. [Ap- 
plause. ] 

'' For assistant secretaries, Edward L. Merritt, of Illinois ; 
W. H. Doyle, of Pennsylvania ; Hambleton Shepard, of 
Virgina ; Clinton Tille}", of Missouri ; L. E. Rowley, of 
Michigan ; Robert E. Wilson, of Mississippi ; Charles R. 
De Freest, of New York ; James C. Strain, of Illinois ; 
Thomas Brady, of Minnesota. 

^'^For reading secretary, Nicholas M. Bell, of Missouri. 
[Loud applause.] 

^'^For assistant reading secretaries, Martin Morrison, of 
Indiana ; Cato Sells, of Iowa ; H. S. Martin, of Kansas ; 
William E. Thompson, of Michigan ; Bernard Brown, of 
Montana ; William Wilkins Carr, of Pennsylvania ; Henry 
J. Lynn, of Tennessee ; Thomas M. Knapp, of Missouri. 

'^ For sergeant-at-arms, Richard J. Bright, of Indiana. 

'^For assistant sergeant-at-arms, John P. Hopkins, of 
Illinois. 

^'For official stenographer, Edward B. Dickinson, of 
New York. 

" With vice-presidents and secretaries from each state.'"' 
[Applause. ] 

The Chairman. The question is on the adoption of the 
report of the committee on permanent organization. Those 
of you, gentlemen, who are in favor of the adoption of the 
rejoort of the committee will say ^' Aye ; " those opposed, 
"No»" \'^^^ report of the comrnittee was adopted without 



492 THE CHICAGO CONVENTION. 

a single dissenting voice. ] The ayes have it ; the report is 
adopted. [Applause. ] 

Mr. Dickinson moved that a committee of five be 
appointed by the chair to notify the chairman and perma- 
nent officers of this convention of their election and to 
bring them before the convention. 

The motion prevailed. 

The Chairman. The chairman appoints as that com- 
mittee : Don M. Dickinson^, of Michigan ; J. F. Duncombe, 
of Iowa ; John E. Fellows^ of N^ew York ; Joseph 0. 
Eichardson, of Alabama, and Martin L . Clardy, of Missouri. 
The gentlemen will assemble at the front of the secretary's 
desk. 

The committee named presented themselves before the 
secretary's desk, the band in the meanwhile playing a 
national air. 

As the committee of escort marched in couples to the 
speaker's stand the air rang with applause. 

Temporary Chairman. It gives me much pleasure to 
present to you as permanent chairman of this convention 
one of the bravest Democrats in America, William L. 
Wilson, of West Virginia. [Loud and continued applause.] 

As Mr. Wilson came forward he was greeted with a storm 
of applause. He wore his blue delegate's badge on the 
lapel of a cutaway coat, under which was prominent a white 
vest. Mr. Wilson looked calmly over the convention dur- 
ing a minute's silence, and then began : 

CHAIRMAK WILSOK's SPEECH. 

^' GrENTLEMEN" OF THE CoKVEKTiOK — I thank you most 
heartily for this honor. I shall endeavor to meet the duties 
of the high position to which you have called me with the 
spirit of fairness and equality that is democracy. This con- 
vention has a high and patriotic work to perform. We owe 
much to our party ; we owe more to our country. The 
mission of the Democratic party is to fight for the under 




CHAIRMAN W. L. WILSON. 



THE CHICAGO CONVENTION. 495 

dog. AVheii that j)arty is out of power we may be sure 
there is an under dog to fight for, and the under dog is the 
American people. When that party is out of power we 
may be sure that some party is in control of our govern- 
ment that rej^resents a section, and not the whole country ; 
that stands for a class and not the whole people. 

'' Never was this truth brought home to us more defiantly 
than by the recent convention at Minneapolis. We are not 
deceived as to the temper of the Republican party. We are 
not in doubt as to its purposes. Having taxed us for years 
without excuse and without mercy, it now proposes to dis- 
arm us of all 230wers of resistance. Republican success in 
this campaign, whether Ave look to the party platform, the 
party candidates or the utterances of the party leaders, 
means that the people are to be stripped of their franchise 
through force bills, in order that they may be stripped of 
their substance through tariff bills. 

"• Free government is self-government. There is no self- 
government where people do not control their own elections 
and levy their own taxes. When either of these rights is 
taken away or diminished, a breach is made, not in the 
outer defenses, but in the citadel of our freedom. For 
years we have been struggling to recover our lost right of 
taxing ourselves, and now we are threatened with the loss 
of the greater right of governing ourselves. The loss of one 
follows in necessary succession the loss of the other. When 
you confer upon the government the power of dealing out 
wealth, you unchain every evil that can prey upon and 
» eventually destroy free institutions — excessive taxation, 
class taxation, billion-dollar Congresses, a corrupt civil 
service, a debauched ballot box and purchased elections. 
In every campaign the privilege of taxing the people will 
be bartered for contributions to corrupt them at the polls. 
After every victory a new McKinley bill to repay these con- 
tributions, with usury, out of taxes wrung from the people. 
For every self-governing people there can be no more 



496 THE CHICAGO CONVENTION, 

momentous question than the question of taxation. It is 
the question, as Mr. Burke truly said, around which all the 
great battles of freedom have been fought. It is the ques- 
tion out of which grow all the issues of government. Until 
we settle this question wisely, permanently, justly, we build 
all other reforms on a foundation of sand. 

" We, and the great party we represent, are to-day for 
tariff reform, because it is the only gate-way to genuine 
democratic government. 

^'^The distinguished leader who presided over the Repub- 
lican convention boasted that he does not know what tariff 
reform is. Who ever said that he did. Let us hope, with 
the charity that endureth all things and believeth all things, 
that he is fully as ignorant as he vaunts himself to be. 
Unfortunately the people are not so ignorant of the mean- 
ing of protection — at least of the protection which is 
doled out to them in the bill which bears his name. They 
see that meaning written large to-day in a prostrated agri- 
culture, in a shackled commerce, in stricken industries, in 
the compulsory idleness of labor, in law-made wealth, in the 
discontent of the workingmen and the despair of the farmer. 
They know by hard experience that protection as a system 
of taxation is but the old crafty scheme by which the rich 
compel the poor to |)ay the expenses of the government. 
They know by hard experience that protection as a system 
of tribute is but the old and crafty scheme by which the 
power of taxation of the people is made the private property 
of a few of the people. 

^^ Tariff reform means to readjust this system of taxation, 
and to purge away this system of tribute. It means that we 
have not reached the equality of true freedom so long as any 
citizen is forced by law to pay tribute to any other citizen, 
and until our taxes are proportioned to the ability and duty 
of the taxpayer, rather than to his ignorance, his weakness 
and his patience. 

'' Governor McKinley further declared that the Demo- 



THE CHICAGO CONVENTION, 497 

cratic party believes in taxing ourselves. I am afraid, 
gentlemen, we must admit this charge. What right or 
excuse have we for taxing anybody else ? With a continent 
for a country, with freedom and intelligence as the instru- 
ments for its development, we stand disgraced in the eyes of 
mankind if we cannot, and if we do not, support our own 
government. We can throw that support on other people 
only by beggary or by force. If we use the one, we are a 
pauper nation ; if we use the other, we are a pirate nation. 

" The Democratic party does not intend that we should 
be either. No more does it intend that they shall falsely 
call it taxing other people to transfer the expenses of 
government from the possession of those who own the 
property of the country to the bellies and backs of those 
who do the work of the country. It believes that frugality 
is the essential virtue of froe government. It intends to 
limit taxation to public needs, and to levy taxes by the plain 
rule of justice and equality. 

^^But, gentlemen, we -are confronted with a new cry in 
this campaign. The Republican j)arty, says Governor Mc- 
Kinley, now stand for protection and reciprocity. He was 
for j)rotection alone when he framed his bill in the house, 
or rather permitted its beneficiaries to frame it for him, and 
firmly resisted all efforts of the statesman from Maine to 
annex reciprocity to it. No wonder that he favors the reci- 
procity added to his bill by the senate. You may explore 
the pages of burlesque literature for anything more 
supremely ludicrous than the so-called reciprocity of the 
McKinley bill. It is not reciprocity at all. It is retalia- 
tion, and worst of all, retaliation on our own people. It 
punishes American citizens for the necessities or the follies 
of other people. It says to a few little countries south of us : 
' If you are forced by your necessities or led by your follies 
to make bread higher and scarcer to your people, we will 
make shoes and sugar higher and scarcer to our people.' 

" And now we are told that reciprocity is to be their battle- 



498 THE CHICAGO CONVENTION, 

cry. Already we are regaled with pictures of Benjamin 
Harrison clad in armor and going forth to battle for reci- 
procity on a plumed steed. Simple Simon fishing for 
whales in his mother's rain barrel and in great triumph 
capturing an occasional wiggle-waggle is the true realistic 
picture of reciprocity of the McKinley bill. 

'' We are for the protection that protects and for the reci- 
procity that reciprocates. We are in favor of protecting 
every man in the enjoyment of the fruit of his labor, dimin- 
ished only by his proper contribution to the support of the 
government, and we are for that reciprocity that throws no 
unnecessary obstacle between the American producer and 
the market he is obliged to seek for his products. 

^' But, gentlemen, I must not keep you from the work 
that is before you. Let us take up that work as brothers, 
as patriots, as Democrats. In so large a convention as this, 
larger in numbers than any previous gathering of our party, 
and representing a larger constituency, it would be strange, 
ominously strange, if there were not some differences of 
opinion on matters of policy and some differences of judg- 
ment or of preference as to the choice of candidates. It is 
the sign of a free democracy that it is many voiced and, 
within the limits of true freedom, tumultous. It wears no 
collars ; it serves no masters. We cannot shut our eyes to 
the fact that many who have heretofore followed our plan 
with enthusiasm are to-day calling with excusable impa- 
tience for immediate relief from the evils that encompass 
them. Whatever can be done to relieve the burdens, to 
restore, broaden and increase the prosperity of the people, 
and every party of them within the limits and according to 
the principles of free government, that the Democratic 
party dares to promise that it will do with all its might. 
Whatever is beyond this, whatever is incompatible with free 
government and our historic liberty, it dares not promise to 
any one. 

"Inveterate evils in the body politic cannot be cured in a 



THE CHICAGO CONVENTION. 501 

moment any more than inveterate diseases in the human 
system. Whoever professes the power to do so is himself 
deceived and a deceiver. Our party is not a quack or a 
worker of miracles. It is not for me, gentlemen, the 
impartial servant of you all, to attempt to forshadow what 
your choice shall be or ought to be in the selection of our 
candidates. You will make that selection under a deep 
sense of responsibility to the people you represent and to 
your country. One thing only I venture to say : Who- 
ever may be your chosen leader in this campaign, no tele- 
gram Avill flash across the sea from the castle of absentee 
tariff lords to congratulate him, but from the home of 
labor, from the fireside of the toiler, from the heart of all 
who love justice and do equity, and who wish and intend 
that our matchless heritage of freedom should be the com- 
mon wealth of all of our people, and the common oppor- 
tunity of our growth, will come up prayers for his success 
and recruits for the great democratic hosts that shall strike 
down the beast of sectionalism and the Moloch of monopoly, 
and restore once again to our happy land ' government of 
the people, by the people and for the people. ' " 

Martin L. Clardy, of Missouri, was recognized to present 
a resolution thanking the temporary chairman. It was 
adopted. 

COMMITTEE OK RULES REPORTS. 

Mr. English, of Indiana, chairman of the committee on 
rules and order of business, then took the platform and 
read the committee's report, as follows : 

^'^As chairman of the committee on rules and order ^f 
business I have been instructed by a majority of the com- 
mittee to submit the following rej)ort : 

"We recommend that the following order of business 
shall be observed in this convention : 

'^1. Eeport of committee on credentials. 

'^2. Report of the committee on organization. 



502 THE CHICAGO CONVENTION, 

'^3. Keport of the committee on resolutions and plat- 
form. 

'^ 4:. Report of the committee on nomination of president 
of the United States. 

^^b. Report of the committee on nomination of vice- 
president of the United States. 

^^ Your committee further recommends that the rules of 
the last National Democratic convention shall be adopted 
for the government of the convention.^' 

On motion the report presented by Mr. English was 
adopted without objection. 

The chairman asked if the committee on resolutions was 
ready to report. There was no reply, and in the interval 
that followed the band struck up a lively air. 

GAVEL PRESENTED BY MR. PHELPS. 

At the conclusion of this performance Mr. Phelps, of 
Missouri, was recognized to present a zinc gavel. He said : 

^^Mr. Chairman" — In behalf of the zinc producers and 
miners of Missouri, I present you this gavel, not made of 
tin or steel from a Nebraska homestead, but mined and 
made in Jasper County, Missouri, and bearing the inscrip- 
tion, ^We need no protection,'' as a protest against the 
mockery of legislation which imposes a useless tariff of 30 
per cent, upon the metal as a pretext for taxing the lamp, 
pick, shirt and blanket of the miner more than 40 per oent. 
The Missouri zinc fields, like the American wheat fields, 
are the most productive in the world. The same market 
which fixes the price of the farmers' wheat regulates the 
price of the miners' zinc, and he has long since learned 
what the farmer is rapidly learning — that the market in 
which he sells the product of his labor is the one in which 
he should purchase the implements of his avocation and the 
necessities of his household — and he is ready to do his part 
iu giving the electoral vote of Missouri to the nominee of 
this convention by 40,000 majority." 



THE CHICAGO CONVENTION. 503 

The committee on resolutions not being ready to report, 
the chairman directed the clerk to call the roll of states to 
receive the names of members of the National Committee 
and members of the Notification Committee. 

The names of the several committees were sent to the 
clerk's desk. 

OJ^ THE KATIOKAL COMMITTEE. 

Alabama, H. D. Clayton; Arkansas, N. M. Rose; California. M. F. Tarpey; 
Colorado, C. S. Thomas ; Connecticut, Carlos French ; Delaware, L. C. Van- 
dergrift; Florida, Samuel Pascoe ; Georgia, Clark Howell, Jr.; Idaho, F. W. 
Beane ; Illinois, B. T. CabfG ; Indiana, S. P. Sheerin ; Iowa, J. J. Richardson; 
Kansas, Charles Blair; Louisiana, J. Jeffries; Maine, Arthur Sewell ; Mary- 
land, A. P. Gorman; Massachusetts, J. Quincy ; Michigan, I). J. Campau; 
Minnesota, M. Doran; Mississippi, C. B. Honorj^; Missouri, J. G. Prather; 
Montana, A. J. Davidson; Nebraska, Tobias Castor; Nevada, R. P. Keating; 
New Hampshire, A. W. Galloway ; New Jersey, Miles Rose ; New York, W. F. 
Sheehan; North Carolina, M. W. Ransom; Ohio, C. S. Brice Oregon, E. D. 
McKec ; Pennsylvania, "William F. Harrity ; South Carolina, M. L. Donaldson; 
Tennessee, H. Ciimmings; Texas, 0. T. Holt; Yermont, B. B. Smalley; Vir- 
ginia, B. B. Gordon ; Washington, H. C. Wallace; West Virginia, J. Sheridan; 
Wisconsin, E. C. Wall,; Alaska, A. K. Delaney ; Arizona, CM. Shannon, 
District of Columbia, J. L. Norris; New Mexico, H. B. Ferguson; Oklahoma, 
T. M, Richardson ; Utah, S. A. Merritt. 

COMMITTEE TO NOTIFY KOMIKEES. 

Alabama, Rufus N. B. Rhodes; Arkansas, B. R. Davidson; California, Ste- 
phen M. White; Colorado, Frank Adams ; Connecticut, Robert J. Vance ; Del- 
aware, R. J. Reynolds; Florida, W. D. Chiploy; Georgia, John T. Riplet; 
Idaho, R. Z. Johnson; Illinois, T. M. Thornton; Indiana, W. D. Cullop; Iowa, 
L. M. Martin; Kansas, J. W. Orr; Kentucky, J. P. Salyer; Louisiana, A. 
Crandall; Maine, E. C. Swett; Maryland, L. V. Boughmau; Massachusetts, 
P. McGuiro ; Michigan, R.A.Montgomery; Minnesota, C. N. Fotto ; Missis- 
sippi, W. V. Sullivan; Missouri, J. W. Walker; Montana, S. T. Hansen; 
Nebraska, J. A. Creighton ; Nevada. C. W. Hinchcliffe ; New Hampshire, H. R. 
Parker; New Jersey, G. H. Barker; New York, Norman E.Maek; North Car- 
olina, Kope Elias ; North Dakota, Andrew Blewett; Ohio, R. R. Holden; Ore- 
gon, Henry Blackman ; Pennsylvania, Henry Cochran ; Rhode Island, F. E. 
Bartlett; South Carolina, T. D. Jervey, Jr.; Tennessee, W. A. Collier; Texas, 
J. H. McLean; Virginia, A. Fulkerson ; Vermont, 0. C. Miller; Washington, 
J.Collins; West Virginia, B. F. Iilartin ; Wisconsin, James Borden; Wyo- 
ming, R. H. Homer; Alaska, James Sheakley; Arizona, E. E. Ellinwood; 
District of Columbia, Henry E. Davis ; New Mexico, E. V. Long ; Utah, H. P. 
Henderson. 



504 THE CHICAGO CONVENTION, 

The committee on resolutions then reported the following 
as the platform of the party. 

PLANKS OF THE PLATFORM. 

Sectiois' 1. The representatives of the Democratic 
party of the United States, in national convention assem- 
bled, do reaffirm their allegiance to the principles of the 
party as formulated by Jefferson and exemplified by the 
long and illustrous line of his successors in Democratic 
leadership from Madison to Cleveland; we believe the 
public welfare demands that these principles be applied to 
the conduct of the federal government through accession 
to power of the party that votes them ; and we solemnly 
declare that the need of a return to these fundamental 
principles of free popular government, based on home rule 
and individual liberty, was never more urgent than now, 
when the tendency to centralize all power at the federal 
capital has become a menace to the reserved rights of the 
states, that strikes at the very roots of our government 
and under the constitution as framed by the fathers of the 
republic. 

FEDERAL COKTROL OF ELECTIONS. 

Sec. 2. We warn the people of our common country, 
jealous for the preservation of their free institutions, that 
the policy of the federal control of elections, to which the 
Eepublican party has committed itself, is fraught with the 
gravest dangers, scarcely less momentous than would result 
from a revolution practically establishing monarchy on the 
ruins of the republic. It strikes at the ISTorth as well as 
the South, and injures the colored citizen even more than 
the white ; it means a horde of deputy marshals at every 
polling place, armed with federal power ; returning boards 
appointed and controlled by federal authority, the outrage 
of the electoral rights of the people in the several states, 
the subjugation of the colored people to the control of the 
party in power and the reviving of race antagonisms now 



THE CHICAGO CONVENTION, 505 

happily abated^ of tho utmost peril to the safety and hap- 
piness of all ; a measure deliberately and justly described 
by a leading Eepublican senator as '' the most infamous bill 
that ever crossed the threshold of the senate/' Such a 
policy, if sanctioned by law, would mean the dominance of 
a self -perpetuating oligarchy of office-holders, and the party 
first intrusted with its machinery could be dislodged from 
power only by an appeal to the reserved right of the people 
to resist oppression, which is inherent in all self-governing 
communities. Two years ago this revolutionary policy was 
emphatically condemned by the people at the polls ; but, in 
contempt of that verdict, the Eepublican party has defiantly 
declared in its latest authoritative utterance that its success 
in the coming elections will mean the enactment of the 
force bill and the usurpation of despotic control over 
elections in all the states. 

DEFEAT OF THE FORCE BILL PLEDGED. 

Believing that the preservation of Eepublican govern- 
ment in the United States is dependent upon the defeat of 
this policy of legalized force and fraud, we invite the assist- 
ance of all citizens who desire to see the constitution main- 
tained in its integrity, with the laws pursuant thereto, 
which have given our country 100 years of unexampled pros- 
perity ; and we pledge the Democratic party, if it be 
intrusted with power, not only to the defeat of the force 
bill, but also to relentless opposition to the Eepublican 
policy of profligate expenditure, which in the short space of 
two years has squandered an enormous surplus and emptied 
an overflowing treasury, after piling new burdens of taxation 
upon the already overtaxed labor of the country. 

POLICY 01^ THE TARIFF. 

We denounce Eepublican protection as a fraud — a rob- 
bery of the great majority of the American people for the 
benefit of the fcAV. We declare it to be a fundamental 



506 THE CHICAGO CONVENTION. 

principle of the Democratic party that the federal govern- 
ment has no constitutional power to impose and collect tariff 
duties except for the purposes of revenue only, and demand 
that the collection of such taxes shall be limited to the 
necessities of the government when honestly and economi- 
cally administered. 

THE m'kINLEY law DENOUISTCED. 

Sec. 3. We denounce the McKinley tariff law enacted by 
the fifty-first Congress as the culminating atrocity of class 
legislation ; we endorse the efforts made by the Democrats of 
the present Congress to modify its most oppressive features 
in the direction of free raw materials and cheaper manu- 
factured goods that enter into home consumption, and we 
propose its repeal as one of the beneficial results that will 
follow the action of the people in intrusting power to the 
Democratic party. Since the McKinley tariff went into 
operation there have been ten reductions of wages of labor- 
ing men to one increase. We deny that there has been 
any increase of prosperity to the country since that tariff 
went into operation, and we point to the dullness and dis- 
tress, the wage reductions and strikes in the iron trade, as 
the best possible evidence that no such prosperity has 
resulted from the McKinley act. 

EFFECTS OF EESTKICTIVE TAXATION". 

We call the attention of thoughtful Americans to the 
fact that after thirty years of restrictive taxation against 
importations of foreign product in exchange for our agri- 
cultural products, the homes and farms of the country 
have become burdened with a real estate mortgage of over 
12,500,000,000, exclusive of all other forms of indebted- 
ness ; that in one of the chief agricultural states of the 
west there appears a real estate mortgage debt averaging 
1165 per capita, and that similar conditions are shown to 
exist in other agricultural exporting states. We denounce 



THE CHICAGO CONVENTION. 507 

a policy which fosters no industry so much as it does that 
of the sheriff. 

THE KECIPKOCITY SHAM EXPOSED. 

Sec. 4. Trade interchange on the basis of reciprocal 
advantages to the countries participating is a time-honored 
doctrine of the democratic faith, but we denounce tlie 
sham reciprocity which juggles with the people^s desire for 
enlarged foreign markets and free exchanges by pretending 
to establish trade relations for a country whose articles of 
export are almost exclusively agricultural, while erecting a 
custom house barrier of prohibitive tariff taxes against the 
richest countries of the world that stand ready to take our 
entire surplus of products, and to exchange therefor com- 
modities which are necessary and are comforts of life among 
our own people. 

LEGISLATIOiq" TO AKKIHILATE MON^OPOLIES. 

Sec. 5. We recognize in trusts and monopolies which 
are designed by capital to secure more than their just share 
of the joint product of capital and labor a natural conse- 
quence of prohibitive taxes which prevent the free compe- 
tition which the life of honest trade needs, but we believe 
their worst evils can be abated by law, and we demand the 
rigid enforcement of laws made to prevent and control them, 
together with such further legislation in restraint of their 
abuses as experience may show to be necessary. 

THE PUBLIC DOMAIN". 

Sec. 6. The Republican party, while professing a policy 
of reserving the public lands for small lioldings by actual 
settlers, has given away the people^s heritage, until now a 
few railroads and non-resident aliens, individual and cor- 
porate, possess a larger area than that of all our farms 
between the two seas. The last Democratic administration 
reversed the improvident and unwise policy of tlie Tlepu])- 
lican party touching the public domain, and reclaimed 



508 THE CHICAGO CONVENTION. 

from corporations and syndicates,, alien and domestic^ and 
restored to the people nearly one hundred million acres of 
valuable land to be sacredly held as homesteads for our cit- 
izens, and we pledge ourselves to continue this policy until 
every acre of land so unlawfully held shall be reclaimed and 
restored to the people. 

FOR THE PARITY OF GOLD AKD SILVER. 

Sec. 7. We denounce the Republican legislation known 
as the Sherman act of 1890 as a cowardly makeshift, 
fraught with possibilities of danger in the future which 
should make all of its supporters, as well as its author, 
anxious for its speedy repeal. We hold to the use of both 
gold and silver as the standard money of the country, and 
to the coinage of both gold and silver without discrimina- 
tion against either metal or charge for mintage, but the 
dollar unit of coinage of both metals must be of equal 
intrinsic and exchangeable value, or be adjusted by inter- 
national agreement or such safeguards of legislation as shall 
insure the maintenance of the parity of the two metals and 
the equal power of any dollar at all times in the market and 
in the payment of debts ; and we demand that all paper 
currency shall be kept at par with and redeemable in such 
coin. We insist upon this policy as especially necessary for 
the protection of the farmers and laboring classes, the first 
and most defenseless victims of unstable money and a fluct- 
nating currency. 

Sec. 8. We recommend that the prohibitive 10 per cent, 
tax on state bank issues be repealed. 

CIVIL SERVICE REFORM. 

Sec. 9. Public office is a public trust. We reaffirm the 
declaration of the Democratic national convention of 1876 
for the reform of the civil service, and we call for the hon- 
est enforcement of all laws regarding same. The nomina- 
tion of a president, as in the last Republican convention. 



THE CHICAGO CONVENTION. 509 

by delegates consisting largely of his appointees, holding 
office at his pleasure, is a scandalous satire upon free popu- 
lar institutions and a startling illustration of the methods by 
which a president may gratify his ambition. We denounce 
a policy under which federal officeholders usurp control of 
party conventions in the states, and we pledge the Demo- 
cratic 23arty to the reform of these and all other abuses 
which threaten individual liberty and local self-govern- 
ment. 

TREATMEI^T OE OTHER KATIOKS. 

Sec. 10. The Democratic party is the only party that has 
ever given the country a foreign policy consistent and vigor- 
ous, compelling respect abroad and inspiring confidence at 
home. While avoiding entangling alliances, it is aimed to 
cultivate friendly relations with other nations, and especially 
with our neighbors on the American continent, whose 
destiny is closely linked with our own, and we view with 
alarm the tendency to a policy of irritation and bluster 
which is liable at any time to confront us, with the alterna- 
tive of humiliation or war. We favor the maintenance of a 
navy strong enough for all purposes of national defense, and 
to properly maintain the honor and dignity of the country 
abroad. 

RUSSIAN TYRAN"KY DEN"OUiirCED. 

Sec. 11. This country has always been the refuge of the 
oppressed from every land — exiles for conscience's sake — 
and in the spirit of the founders of our government we con- 
demn the oppression practiced by the Russian government 
upon its Lutheran and Jewish subjects, and we call upon 
our national government, in the interest of justice and 
humanity, by all just and proper means to use its prompt 
and best efforts to bring about a cessation of these cruel 
persecutions in the dominions of the czar, and to secure to 
the oppressed equal rights. 

We tender our profound and earnest sympathy to those 



510 THE CHICAGO CONVENTION. 

lovers of freedom who are struggling for home rule and the 
great cause of self government in Ireland. 

RESTEICTED IMMIGRATIOiq' FAVORED. 

Sec. 12. We heartily approve all legitimate efforts to pre- 
vent the United States being used as the dumping-ground 
of the criminals and professional paupers of Europe, and we 
demand the rigid enforcement of the laws against Chinese 
immigration and the importation of foreign workmen under 
contract to degrade our labor and lessen its wages, but we 
condemn and denounce all attempts to restrict the immi- 
gration of the industrious and worthy of foreign lands. 

POLICY AS TO PENSIONS. 

Sec. 13. This convention hereby renews the expression of 
appreciation of the patriotism of the soldiers and sailors of 
the union in the war for its preservation, and we favor just 
and liberal pensions for all disabled union soldiers, their 
widows and dependents ; but we demand that the work of 
the pension office shall be done industriously, impartially 
and honestly. We denounce the present administration of 
that office as incompetent, corrupt, disgraceful and dis- 
honest. 

WATERWAYS AND THE NICARAGUA CANAL. 

Sec. 14. The federal government should care for and 
improve the Mississippi river and other great waterways of 
the republic so as to secure for the interior states easy and 
cheap transportation to tidewater. When any waterway of 
the republic is of sufficient importance to demand the aid 
of the government, that such aid should be extended on a 
definite plan of continuous work until permanent improve- 
ment is secured. 

Sec. 15. For purposes of national defense and the promo- 
tion of commerce between the states, we recognize the early 
construction of the Nicaragua canal and its protection 
against foreign control as of great importance to the United 
States. 



THE CHICAGO CONVENTION. 511 

AID FOR THE FAIR ASKED. 

Sec. 1G. Recognizing the World's Columbian Exposition 
as a national undertaking of vast importance, in which the 
general government has invited the cooperation of the 
nations of the world, and appreciating the acceptance by 
many such powers of the invitation so extended, and the 
broad and liberal efforts being made by them to contribute 
to the grandeur of the undertaking, we are of the opinion 
that Congress should make such necessary financial provi- 
sion as shall be requisite to the maintenance of national 
honor and public faith. 

EDUCATIOIT Al^D THE SCHOOLS. 

Sec. 17. Popular education being the only safe basis of 
popular suffrage, we recommend to the several states most 
liberal appropriations for the public schools. Free common 
schools are the nursery of good government, and they have 
always received the fostering care of the Democratic party, 
which favors every means of increasing intelligence. Free- 
dom of education, being an essential of civil and religious 
liberty, as well as a necessity for the development of intelli- 
gence, must not be interfered with under any pretext what- 
ever. We-are opposed to state interference with parental 
rights and rights of conscience in the education of children 
as an infringement of the fundamental principles of the 
Democratic doctrine that the largest individual liberty con- 
sistent with the rights of others insures the highest type of 
American citizenship and the best government. 

ADMISSION OF TERRITORIES. 

Sec. 18. We approve the action of the present house of 
representatives in passing the bills for the admission into 
the union as states of the territories of New Mexico and 
Arizona, and we favor the early admission of all the terri- 
tories having the necessary population and resources to enti- 
tle them to statehood, and while they remain territories we 
hold that the oflQ.cers appointed to maintain the government 



512 THE CHICAGO CONVENTION. 

of any territory, together with the District of Cokimbia and 
Alaska, should be bona fide residents of the territory and 
district in which their duties are to be performed. The 
Democratic party believes in home rule and the control of 
their own affairs by the people of the vincinage. 

PEOTECTION" FOR THE LABORIN"G MAi^T. 

Sec. 19. We favor legislation by Congress and state legis- 
latures to protect the lives and limbs of railway employes 
and those of other hazardous transportation companies, and 
denounce the inactivity of the Republican party, and par- 
ticularly the Republican senate, for causing the defeat of 
measures beneficial and protective to this class of wage 
workers. 

Sec. 20. We are in favor of the enactment by the states 
of laws for abolishing the notorious sweating system, for 
abolishing contract convict labor, and for prohibiting the 
employment in factories of children under fifteen years of 
age. 

Sec. 21. We are opposed to all sumptuary laws as an 
interference with the individual rights of the citizen. 

Sec. 22. Upon this statement of principles and policy the 
Democratic party asks the intelligent judgment of the 
American people. It asks a change of administration and 
a change of party in order that there may be a change of 
system and a change of methods, thus assuring the main- 
tenance unimpaired of institutions under which the Repub- 
lic has grown great and powerful. 

There was animated discussion over both the tariff and 
silver planks, but good Democratic doctrine, coupled with 
good judgment, won the day, and the convention spoke in 
unmistakable tones against McKinleyism, and in favor of 
honest money. 

After the adoption of the platform, the roll of states was 
called for the nomination of President. When New Jersey 
was reached. Gov. Leon Abbett, in one of the ablest efforts 



THE CHICAGO CONVENTION. 513 

of the convention, placed Grover Cleveland in nomination, 
as follows : 

"Me. Chairman" akd Gentlemeit of the Cokven- 
TiOK : — In placing a name before this convention I speak 
for the united Democracy of the State of New Jersey, whose 
loyalty to Democratic principles, faithful service to the 
party, and whose contributions to its success entitle it to 
the consideration of the Democracy of the country. Its 
electoral vote has always been cast in support of Democratic 
principles and Democratic candidates. 

" In voicing the unanimous wish of the delegation of JSTew 
Jersey, I present as their candidate for the suffrage of this 
convention the name of a distinguished Democratic states- 
man born upon its soil, for whom, in two presidential con- 
tests, the State of New Jersey has given its electoral vote. 

" The supreme consideration in the mind of the Democ- 
racy of New Jersey is the success of the Democratic party 
and its principles. We have been in the past, and will be 
in the future, ready to sacrifice all personal preferences to 
the clear expression of the will of the Democratic party. It 
is because his name will awaken throughout our own state 
the enthusiasm of the Democracy and insure success ; it is 
because he represents the great Democratic princij^les and 
policy upon which this entire convention is a unit ; it is 
because we believe that with him as a candidate the Democ- 
racy of the Union will sweep the country and establish its 
principles throughout the length and breadth of the land, 
that we offer to the convention as a nominee the choice of 
the Democracy of New Jersey — Grover Cleveland. 

"If any doubt existed in the minds of the Democracy of 
New Jersey of his ability to lead the great Democratic hosts 
to victory, they would not present his name to-day. "With 
them the success of the party and the establishment of its 
principles are beyond their love of admiration for any man. 

^'^ We feel certain that every Democratic state, tliough its 
preference may be for some other distinguished Democrat, 



514 . THE CHICAGO CONVENTION. 

will give its warm^ enthusiastic and earnest support to the 
nominee of this convention. The man whom we present 
will rally to his party thousands of independent voters, whose 
choice is determined by their personal conviction that the 
candidate will represent principles dear to them, and whose 
public life and policy gives assurance that if chosen by the 
people they will secure an honest, pure and conservative 
administration, and the great interest of the country will be 
encouraged and protected. The time will come when other 
distinguished Democrats, who have been mentioned in con- 
nection with this nomination, will receive that consideration 
to which the great services they have rendered their party 
entitle them. But we stand to-day in the presence of the 
fact that the majority of the Democratic masses throughout 
the country, rank and file, the millions of its voters, demand 
the nomination of G-rover Cleveland. 

" This sentiment is so strong and overpowering that it 
has affected and controlled the actions of delegates who 
would otherwise present the name of some distinguished 
leader of their own state, with whom they feel victory would 
be assured, and with whom the entire country would have 
confidence. But the people have spoken, and favorite sons 
and leaders are standing aside in deference to their will. 

'^ Shall we listen to the voice of the Democracy of the 
Union ; shall we place on our banners the name of the man 
of their choice, the man in whom they believe ; or shall we, 
for any consideration of policy or expediency, hesitate to 
obey their will ? 

" I have sublime faith in the expression of the people 
when it is clear and distinct, when the question before them 
is one that has excited discussion and debate ; when it 
appeals to their interest and their feelings ; when it calls for 
the exercise of their Judgment, and when they say ^ we 
want this man and we can elect him,^ we, their represent- 
atives, must not disobey or disappoint them. It is incum- 
bent upon us to obey their wishes and concur in their 



THE CHICAGO CONVENTION. 515 

judgment. Then, having given them the candidate of their 
choice, they will give us their best, their most energetic 
efforts to secure success. 

*■*■ We confidently rely upon the loyal and successful work 
of the Democratic leaders who have advocated other candi- 
dates. We know that in the great state across the river 
from New Jersey, now controlled by the Democracy, there 
is no Democrat who will shirk the duty of making an effort 
to secure the success of the candidate of this convention, 
notwithstanding his judgment may differ from that of the 
majority. The Democracy of New York and their great 
leaders whose efforts and splendid generalship have given to 
us a Democratic senator and governor^ will always be true 
to the great party they represent ; they will not waver in the 
coming canvass, nor will they rest until they have achieved 
success. Their grand victories of the past, their natural 
and honorable ambition, their unquestioned Democracy will 
make them arise and fight as never before, and with those 
that they represent and lead, they will marshal the great 
independent vote, and we will again secure Democratic vic- 
tory in New York. The grand Democrats under whose 
leadership the people of New York are now governed will 
give to the cause the great weight of organization. 
The thundering echoes of this convention, announcing the 
nomination of Grover Cleveland, will not have died out 
over the hills and through the valleys of this land before 
you will hear and see all our leaders rallying to the support 
of our candidate. They will begin their efforts for organ- 
ization and success, and continue their work until victory 
crowns their efforts. All Democrats will fight for victory, 
and they will succeed because the principles of the party 
enunciated here are for the best interests of the country at 
large, and because the people of this land have unquestion- 
ing faith that Grover Cleveland will give the country a 
pure, honest and stable government, and an administration 
in which the great business interests of the country and the 



516 THE CHICAGO CONVENTION, 

agricultural and laboring interests of the masses will receive 
proper and due consideration. 

'' The question has been asked. Why is it that the masses 
of the party demand the nomination of Grover Cleveland ? 
Why is it that this man who has no offices to distribute, no 
wealth to command, should have secured the spontaneous 
support of the great body of democracy ? Why is it that, 
with all that has been urged against him, the people still 
cry ' Give us Cleveland ? ' Why is it that, although he has 
pronounced in clear, earnest and able language his views 
upon a question upon which some of his party may differ 
with him, that he is still near and dear to the masses ? It 
is because he has crystallized into a living issue the great 
principle upon which this battle is to be fought at the com- 
ing election. If he did not create tariff reform, he made it 
a presidential issue. He vitalized it and presented it to our 
party as the issue for which we could fight and continue to 
battle, until upon it victory is now assured. There are few 
men in his position who would have had the courage to 
boldly make the issue of tariff reform and present it clearly 
and forcibly as he did in his great message of 1887. I 
believe that his policy then was to force a natural issue 
which would appeal to the judgment of the people. 

^^We must honor a man who is honest enough and bold 
enough under such circumstances, to proclaim that the 
success of the party upon principle is better than evasion or 
shirking of the true national issues for temporary success. 
When victory is obtained upon principle it forms the solid 
foundation of party success in the future. It is no longer 
the question of a battle to be won on the mistakes of our 
foes, but it is a victory to be accomplished by a charge 
along the whole line under the banner of principle. 

'^ There is another reason why the people demand his 
nomination. They feel that the tariff reform views of Presi- 
dent Cleveland, and the principles laid down in his great 
message, whatever its temporary effect may have been, gave 



THE CHICAGO CONVENTION, 517 

us a living and vital issue to fight, wliicli has made the 
great victories since 1888 possible. It consolidated in one 
solid phalanx the democracy of the nation. In every state 
of this Union that policy has been placed in Democratic 
platforms, and our battles have been fought upon it, and 
this great body of rejDresentative Democrats has seen its 
good results. Every man in this convention recognizes this 
as the policy of the party. In Massachusetts it gave us a 
Kussell ; in Iowa it gave us a Boies ; in Wisconsin it gave 
us a Peck for governor and Vilas for senator ; in Michigan 
it gave us Winans for governor, and gave us a Democratic 
legislature, and will give us eight votes for President ; in 
1889, in Ohio, it gave us James Campbell for governor, 
and in 1891 it required the entire wealth and power of the 
Eepublican party to defeat him ; in Pennsylvania it gave 
us Eobert' E. Pattison ; in Connecticut it gave us a 
Democratic governor, who was kept out of office by the in- 
famous conduct of the Republican party ; in New Hamp- 
shire it gave us a legislature, of which we were defrauded ; 
in Illinois it gave us a Palmer for senator, and in Nebraska 
it gave us Boyd for governor. 

'''In the great southern states it has continued in jDOwer 
the Democratic party. In New Jersey the power of the 
Democracy has been strengthened, and the legislature and 
executive are both Democratic. In the great State of New 
York it has given us the great David B. Hill for senator, 
and Roswell P. Flower for governor. With, all these glori- 
ous achievements, it is the wisest and best policy to nomi- 
nate again the man whose policy made these successes pos- 
sible. The people believe that these victories, which gave 
us a Democratic House of Representatives in 1890, and 
Democratic governors and senators in Republican and 
doubtful states, are due to the courage and wisdom of 
Grover Cleveland. And, so believing, they recognize him 
as their great leader. 

''In presenting this name to the convention it is no 



518 THE CHICAGO CONVENTION. 

reflection upon any of the masterful leaders of the party. 
The victories which have been obtained are not alone the 
heritage of those states. They belong to the whole party. 
I feel that every Democratic state and that every individual 
Democrat has reason to rejoice and be proud and applaud 
these splendid successes. The candidacy of Grover Cleve- 
land is not a reflection upon others ; it is not antagonistic 
to any great Democratic leader. He comes before this 
convention, not as the candidate of any one state. He is 
the choice of the great majority of Democratic voters. 

'^ The Democracy of Kew Jersey presents to this con- 
vention in this, the people^s year, their nominee, the 
nominee of the people, the plain, blunt, honest citizen, the 
idol of the Democratic masses, Grover Cleveland.''' 

Governor Abbett's speech was received with the wildest 
demonstrations of approval, which clearly denoted that the 
convention was for the man he had named. Bourke Cock- 
ran, of New York, placed the name of David B. Hill before 
the convention in a masterful speech that elicited long-con- 
tinued and well-deserved applause. John P. Duncombe, 
of Iowa, placed Horace Boies in nomination in an able 
manner, and after the roll of states was finished many able 
seconding speeches of the three candidates having been 
made, the convention took its first and only vote for Presi- 
dent, which we give in detail : 



THE CHICAGO CONVENTION. 



519 





P 

3 




i 
g 

o 


O 

'o 


i 


o 

O 




o 




o 

GQ 

-2 


Alabama 


14 

5 

16 


2 


1 


1 


2 


2 










Arizona 










Arkansas 




















Colorado *....... 


3 




5 














California 


18 

12 

6 

2 

5 

17 














Connecticut ...^-. 




















Delaware 




















Dist. Columbia 




















Florida 












3 








Georgia 


5 


4 














Idaho 


6 














Illinois 


48 
30 


















Indiana 




















Iowa 






26 














Kansas 


20 

18 

3 

9 

6 

24 

28 

18 

8 

34 
























2 

11 






6 








Louisiana 


1 
1 

"I' 


1 
1 

1 


























^Maryland 






























Michigan 


































Mississippi 


3 


4 


3 


m 


























Montana 






6 














Nebraska 


15 





1 
2 














Xevada 


4 
















8 

20 

4 
















New Jersey 




















New M exico 


1 
72 




1 














New York 
















31 
6 

14 
2 
8 

64 
8 
1 
7 

24 

23 
2 
8 

12 
8 
7 

24 
3 
2 
2 

616' 




1 












16§ 


North Dakota 
















6 


5 


16 






5 








Oklahoma . . 
































Pennsylvania 








































South Carolina 


3 




14 
I 




























Tennessee 




















1 




6 














Utah 


































T^ivpnnia 


11 


1 
































Ti'p'st. T'^ircrinin 


1 


3 




































3 
































Tnd Ter 








































Totals 


114 


36i 


103 


2 


3 


14 


1 


1 


16.1 



601 necessary to nominate. 
1 vote firom West Yirginia. 



*Gormau not voting. Gov, Pattisou received 



520 THE CHICAGO CONVENTION. 

The announcement of the result was followed by a scene 
that no tongue can tell. For nearly sixteen hours, with 
but a short intermission, the convention had been in ses- 
sion, and the powers of the delegates had been heavily 
taxed, yet, as the expected result became a certainty, the 
convention gave ample evidence that the favorite had won. 
On motion, the nomination was made unanimous, and 
about four o^clock, A. m. the most memorable session ever 
held by any National Convention, adjourned. 

THIED DAY^S PROCEEDINGS. 

At 2:55 P. M. Chairman Wilson called the convention to 
order. After prayer by Kev. Thomas Greene, of Iowa, the 
chairman announced that the nominations for a candidate 
for Vice-President Avere in order, and directed that the roll 
of states be called for that purpose. The Indiana delega- 
tion, through Mr. John E. Lamb, presented the name of 
Hon. Isaac P. Gray, as a candidate, and was seconded by 
the delegations from Connecticut, Kansas, Tennessee, Ver- 
mont, Washington, and New Mexico. The Michigan dele- 
gation, through Mr. Edwin E. Uhl, presented the name of 
Hon. Allen B. Morse, as a candidate, and was seconded by 
the delegation from Alabama. The Wisconsin delegation 
presented the name of the Hon. John L. Mitchell, as its can- 
didate, through the gallant soldier and statesman, Gen. 
Edwin S. Bragg. The Illinois delegation, through Nicholas 
E. Worthington, presented the name of Adlai E. Stevenson, 
as a candidate, and was seconded by the delegations from 
Kentucky, North Carolina, Texas, Virginia, and Oklahoma. 
Mr. Worthington's nominating speech was as follows : 

^*'Mr. Chairman and Fellow-delegates : Illinois has pre- 
sented no presidential candidate to this convention. 

^'^It has within its borders more than one favorite son 
whom it would have delighted to honor, and who are worthy 
of all the political honors that could be conferred upon 
them.' But here, in this great city of Chicago, in this great 



THE CHICAGO CONVENTION. 521 

commonwealth of Illinois^ bordering upon the lake and the 
Mississippi, in the center of this great republic, the Democ- 
racy, catching the vibration of the ground swell that came 
from the south and the east and the west, put aside its 
favorite sons, for the time buried its state pride and, echo- 
ing back to Texas, Connecticut and California, with forty- 
eight votes shouted the name of Grover Cleveland. [Ap- 
plause. ] 

'^^But for the Vice-Presidency, for the second highest 
place in the gift of the people, it has a candidate so fully 
equipped by nature and education that it feels that it would 
be a political fault to fail to urge his name for nomination 
before you. I stand here, gentlemen, to name as a candi- 
date for that position a man that is known by every woman 
and child and voter that ever licked a postage stamp, in 
every village and hamlet in the land [applause] ; a big- 
bodied, big-hearted, big-brained man ; a man of command- 
ing presence, of dignified mien ; a man whose courtesy in 
his every-day manners is rarely equaled and never excelled ; 
a man who, in the administration of his duties in the last 
Democratic administration, was the beau ideal of an honest, 
honorable, useful and efficient Democratic officeholder. 
Like his great leader, who bears your banner, he believes 
that 'a public office is a public trust, "* but he believes also 
that the Democrats are the best trustees of this public trust. 
[Cheers.] Nor can the pride of office make him jDroud or 
haughty. I appeal to every senator and congressman who 
is here if ever he found the haughtiness of office, the chill- 
ing indifference of a little brief authority in the atmosphere 
of the room of the assistant postmaster-general during 
Cleveland's administration. Gentlemen, we have nailed 
our banner to the mast. A Democrat never surrenders. 
We propose to make true what our Eepublican friends say 
of us — that we do our quarreling before the convention 
and our fighting against our enemies afterward. [Cheers.] 

*MVe believe that every Democrat will put on his armor. 



522 THE CHICAGO CONVENTION, 

We of the AVest here have been making a magnificent cam- 
23aign of late years. We have been educating the people, 
and the proud results are seen in Boyd of Nebraska, Boies 
of Iowa, and Peck of Wisconsin. [Applause.] They are 
seen in that grand old man who represents Illinois in the 
United States Senate. [Cheers.] They are seen in the 
reduction of the Kepublican majority from 60,000 to 
13,000 in Illinois. They are seen in the election of a 
Democratic treasurer, and superintendent of public instruc- 
tion now in this state. We propose, in this campaign, to 
attack the last citadel. We have a governor that we are 
going to elect. Will you help us give the twenty-four elect- 
oral votes to Grover Cleveland ? If you will, vote for the 
man whose name I now present, a man who does not have 
to get a certificate from a labor organization to prove that 
he is a friend of the people [applause], a man that we all 
love, Adlai E. Stevenson, of Illinois." [Prolonged cheers.] 
On the call of the roll of states, Alabama threw its 
twenty-two votes for Morse. Arkansas gave its sixteen 
votes to Governor Gray, and California divided its vote 
between Stevenson and Gray. Colorado solid for Stevenson, 
Connecticut for Gray, and Delaware voted for Morse. Illi- 
nois voted for Stevenson, and Indiana gave thirty votes to 
Gray. Iowa gave her twenty-six votes to Henry Watterson. 
Kansas supported Gray. Kentucky threw two votes to 
Mitchell, and divided the rest evenly between Stevenson 
and Gray. Louisiana gave her sixteen votes to Stevenson. 
Massachusetts gave two-thirds of her vote to Stevenson, 
and divided the rest between Gray and Morse. Michigan 
gave her twenty-eight votes to Morse, and Missouri was 
unable to apply the unit rule because none of the candi- 
dates got a majority of her votes. New Jersey cast all her 
votes but one for Gray. New York cast seventy-two votes 
for Stevenson. North Carolina gave Stevenson all her votes, 
and Ohio gave him thirty-eight of her forty-six votes. 
Pennsylvania gave sixty-four votes to Gray. South Caro- 



THE CHICAGO CONVENTION. 523 

liua gave her eighteen votes to Stevenson. Texas gave all 
but four of her votes to him, and Virginia voted for him 
solidly. West Virginia gave each of three candidates four 
votes, and Wisconsin voted for Mitchell. When the call of 
states was completed Stevenson had 404 votes, and Gray 
had 351, and the rest were divided between Morse, Mitchell, 
Watterson, Bourke Cockran and Boies. 

Iowa at once announced that at the request of Colonel 
Watterson she withdrew her vote for him, and the twenty- 
six votes of Iowa were given to Stevenson. Montana 
changed her six votes to Stevenson. Nebraska gave him 
her solid vote. Nevada changed to Stevenson. Ohio and 
Kentucky and Georgia gave their solid votes to Stevenson, 
amidst immense cheering and yelling. Texas and Kansas 
added their solid votes. By this time everybody was stand- 
ing and shouting, and the rapid succession of changes to 
Stevenson were inaudible in the uproar. Mr. Cole, of Ohio, 
moved, and Mr. Hansel, of Pennsylvania, seconded the 
motion that the nomination be made unanimous, and it was 
carried with a great shout. 

The usual complimentary resolutions were adopted, and 
then Gen. P. A. Collins, of Massachusetts, with a few vig- 
orous denunciations of the turbulent galleries, offered a 
resolution he had offered twelve years ago, instructing the 
National Committee to provide for the next convention a 
hall large enough to seat the delegates and alternates, the 
National Committee and the press, and no others, which was 
referred to the next National Committee, with an affirmative 
recommendation and power to act. 

Upon motion the convention adjourned sine cliGy amidst 
great cheering and enthusiasm, which was redoubled as the 
band struck up ^^ America/' and in which the vast audience 
heartily joined. 



524 DEMOGJRATIC PBINCIPLES. 

CHAPTER IX. 

DEMOCEATIC PEINCIPLES. 

The principles of the Democratic party, as laid down by 
such men as Jefferson, Jackson and Tilden, cannot be too 
often reiterated, or be too familiar to those who hold to-day 
the trusts committed to us by our forefathers, and from the 
rich legacy of thought these patriots have left us, we sub- 
mit a few of the principles upon which true Democracy 
rests. 

Jefferson, in his first inaugural address, stated that, in 
his administration, he should be guided by the following 
rules : 

Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever state or 
persuasion, religious or political. 

Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations ; 
entangling alliance with none. 

The support of the state governments in all their rights 
as the most competent administrators of our domestic con- 
cerns and the surest bulwarks against anti-republican 
tendencies. 

The preservation of the general government in its whole 
constitutional vigor as the sheet anchor of our peace at 
home and safety abroad. 

A jealous care of the right of election by the peojDle. 

Absolute acquiescence in the decisions of the majority, 
the vital principles of republics. 

A well-disciplined militia, our best reliance in peace, and 
for the first moments of war, till regulars may relieve 
them. 

The supremacy of the civil over the military authority. 

Economy in the public expenses, that labor may be lightly 
burdened. 

The honest payment of our debts, and the sacred preserva- 
tion of the public faith. 



DE3I0CBATIC PRINCIPLES. 525 

Encouragement of agriculture, and of commerce as its 
handmaid. 

The diffusion of information and arraignment of all 
abuses at the bar of public reason. 

Freedom of religion. 

Freedom of the press. 

Freedom of the person under the protection of the habeas 
corpus. 

'''These principles," said Jefferson, ''form the bright 
constellation which has gone before us and guided our steps 
through the age of revolution and reformation. The wis- 
dom of our sages and the blood of our heroes have been 
devoted to their attainment. They should be the creed of 
our political faith, the text of civic instruction, the touch- 
stone by which to try the services of those we trust ; and 
should we wander from them in moments of error or alarm, 
let us hasten to retrace our steps and to regain the road 
which alone leads to peace, liberty and safety. ''' 

Andrew Jackson gave utterance to Democratic axioms 
during his administration, only a few of which can be 
given here. He. said : 

In every case advantage must result from strict and faith- 
ful economy in the administration of public affairs. 

The unnecessary duration of the public debt is incom- 
patible with real independence. 

In the adjustment of a tariff for revenue a spirit of 
equity, caution and compromise requires the great interests 
of agriculture, manufactures and commerce to be equally 
favored. 

That the patronage of the general government, which 
had been brought into conflict with the freedom of elections 
and had disturbed the rightful course of apjDointments by 
continuing in power unfaithful and incompetent public 
servants, should no longer be used for that purpose. 

That the integrity and zeal of public officers would 



526 DEMOGBATIC PBINCIPLES. 

advance the interests of the public service more than mere 
numbers. 

That it was the right of the people to elect a President, 
and that it was never designed that their choice should in 
any case be defeated by the intervention of agents. 

That the majority should govern. No President elected 
by a minority could so successfully discharge his duties as 
he who knew he was supported by the majority of the 
people. 

He advocated unfettered commerce, free from restrictive 
tariff laws, leaving it to flow into those natural channels in 
which individual enterprise, always the surest and safest 
guide, might direct it. 

He opposed specific tariffs, because subject to changes, 
produced by selfish motives, they could never be just and 
equal. 

That proper fostering of manufactures and commerce 
tend to increase the value of agricultural products. 

He declared in favor of the principle that no money should 
be expended until first appropriated for the purpose by the 
legislature. 

He opposed the system of government aiding private cor- 
porations in making internal improvements. It was decept- 
ive, and led to improvidence in the expenditure of public 
moneys. 

The operations of the general government should be 
strictly confined to the few simple, but important objects 
for which it was orginally designed. 

He favored the veto power in the Executive, but only to 
be exercised in cases of attempted violation of the Constitu- 
tion, or in cases next to it in importance. 

In the writings of Samuel J. Tilden we find these trite 
truths : 

^^ Every business, every industrial interest, is paralyzed 
under excessive taxation, false systems of finance, extrava- 
gant cost of production, diminished ability to consume/' 



DEMOCBATIC PRINCIPLES. 527 

'' These taxes, when laid on imports in the manner in 
which they were laid in the Congressional carnival of manu- 
facturers which framed our present tariff, cause a misappli- 
cation of industry that charges on the consumer what 
neither the government is able to collect as taxes, nor the 
manufacturer to appropriate as jDrofits. They lessen the 
productive power of human labor as if God had cursed it 
with ungenial climate or sterile soil." 

^^ There is no royal road for a government more than for 
an individual or a corporation. I would give all the 
legerdemain of finance and financiering — I would give 
the whole of it — for the old homely maxim, ' Live within 
your income.' " 

" Disunion and centralization are equally fatal to good 
government." 

^^ Principles are the test of political character. The 
Democracy always made fidelity to official trust and justice 
to the toiling masses who earn their bread by the sweat of 
their brow, a fundamental article in their party creed." 

'^ Whoever obstructs the means of payment obstructs 
also the facilities of sale. We must relax our barbarous 
revenue system so as not to retard the natural processes of 
trade. We must no longer legislate against the wants of 
humanity and the beneficence of God." 

'^ The pecuniary sacrifices of the people are not to be 
measured by the receipts into the Treasury. They are 
vastly greater. A tax that starts in its career by disturbing 
the productive power of labor, and then comes to the con- 
sumer distended by profits of successive intermediaries and 
by insurance against the risks of a fickle or uncertain gov- 
ernmental policy, and of a fluctuating governmental stand- 
ard of value, blights human well-being at every step. 
When it reaches the hapless child of toil who buys his 
bread by the single loaf and his fuel by the basket, it 
devours his earnings and inflicts starvation." 

.f * * Our wise ancestors founded the Union on the 



528 DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLES, 

principles of local self-government, to be everywhere car- 
ried on by the voluntary co-operation of the governed. 
They did not intend that one part of our country should 
govern another part." 

ff * * The destruction of all local self-government in 
a country so extensive as ours, and embracing such elements 
of diversity in habits, manners, opinions, and interests, and 
the exercise by a single centralized authority of all the pow- 
ers of society over so vast a region and over such population 
would entail upon us an indefinite series of civic commo- 
tions, and repeat here the worst crimes and worst calamities 
of history.''^ 

^' The reason why self-government is better than govern- 
ment by any one man, or by a foreign people, is that the 
policy evolved by this process is generally better adapted to 
the actual condition of the society on which it is to 
operate." 

"It is no part of the duty of the state to coerce the 
individual man, except so far as his conduct may affect 
others, not remotely and consequentially, but by violating 
rights which legislation can recognize and undertake to 
protect." 

" There is no instrumentality in human society so poten- 
tial in its influence upon mankind, for good or evil, as the 
governmental machinery for administering justice and for 
making and executing laws. Not all the eleemosynary 
institutions of private benevolence to which philanthropists 
may devote their lives, are so fruitful in benefits as the 
rescue and preservation of this machinery from the perver- 
sions that make it the instrument of conspiracy, fraud, and 
crime against the most sacred rights and interests of the 
people." 

"Every power is a trust and involves a duty." 

" The Republican party is largely made up of those who 
live by their wits, and who aspire in politics to advantages 



DEMOCBATIC PRINCIPLES, 529 

over the rest of mankind similar to those which their daily 
lives are devoted to securing in private business. 

^^ The Democratic party consists largely of those who live 
by the Avork of their hands, and whose political action is 
governed by their sentiments or imagination. 

'^It results that the Democratic party, more readily 
than the Eepublican party, can be molded to the support 
of reform measures which involve a sacrifice of selfish 
interests. ■'' 



530 BEIEF HISTORY OF POLITICAL PARTIES. 

CHAPTER X. 

BRIEF HISTORY OF POLITICAL PARTIES. 

It is impossible here to do more than outline the growth 
of parties, but no man can be an intelligent voter who does 
not study the foundation of the republic. Every citizen 
should pursue this subject further in the pages of the 
Federalist y which argued one side of the issue, and in the 
writings of Thomas Jefferson, who upheld the other. 

George Washin"gtok (1780-1797) was the unanimous 
choice of the electoral college, and became the first Presi- 
dent of the United States in 1789. Even at that time the 
people were not all of one mind about the Constitution. 
Parties were formed known as strict constructionists and 
loose constructionists, the former Federalists, the latter 
Anti-Federalists, the first believing in a strongly centralized 
government, the second jealously observant of the rights of 
the states. 

Of course new issues complicated tho old ones. The 
Anti Federalists changed their name to the Democratic- 
Eepublican party, and warmly urged the alliance with 
France. The Federalists, on the other hand, inclined 
toward England as the national friend, through the ties of 
kinship and common language. In spite of these differ- 
ences, daily growing more, bitter, there was practically no 
partisanship during Washington's administration. He called 
Federalists and Anti-Federalists into his cabinet, composed 
of men of opposite views, as Alexander Hamilton and 
Thomas Jefferson. 

But with Washington retired the contest began. The 
Federalists put Johk Adams (1797-1801) in the field, and 
elected him in spite of the English treaty which John Jay 
had made and which Adams had supported. Thomas Jef- 
ferson became vice-president, under the system of that day. 

But the Federalist triumph could not be a permanent 



BRIEF HISTORY OF POLITICAL PARTIES. 531 

one. England was intensely unpopular. The alien and 
sedition laws caused public displeasure, and the party split 
into two sections, one following Adams, the other Hamilton. 
T\"ominations were made by members of Congress ; Adams 
and Pinkney were chosen as the Federal standard-bearers, 
Jefferson and Aaron Burr as the Eepublican. Jefferson and 
Burr were elected, but as both had the same number of votes, 
the election was throAvn into the House, which chose 
Thomas Jefferson" (1801-1809) the third president of the 
United States. 

His administration was a quiet one. He refused to make 
the civil service the spoil of victory, and purchased the 
Louisiana Territory from France in 1803, a measure tending 
strongly toward Federalism. Jefferson also agreed to the 
building of the great post road to the Ohio, which was by 
no means a Republican scheme. 

James Madison (1809-1817) was elected fourth presi- 
dent. He, like Jefferson, was a Republican, although that 
party is more nearly akin to what is to-day called Democracy. 
C. 0. Pinkney, the Federalist candidate, received 47 elec- 
toral votes, while Madison was given 122. The Federalists 
lost every part of the country save New England. 

The country was drifting into a war with England at the 
time. The Republicans were recognized as the fighting 
party, and under the leadership of Calhoun, Clay and Craw- 
ford, the War of 1812 was begun. The Federalists pro- 
tested, and in Massachusetts and Connecticut the governors 
refused to allow the militia to go out of the state, save to 
repel invasion. 

With the close of Madison's administration, the questions 
of Federalism and of the French or English friendship 
died, and new issues came up. These were the tariff, the 
management of finances and the development of industry. 
What became known as the Era of Good Feeling followed, 
which lasted from the election of James Moxroe (1817- 
1825) up to 1828. Upon Monroe's second election in 1821, 



532 BRIEF HISTORY OF POLITICAL PARTIES. 

he would have had the unanimous vote of the electoral col- 
lege had not one of the electors declared that that honor 
should be confined sacredly to Washington. 

The Slavery Question began with the application of Mis- 
souri for admission into the Union in 1820. Prior to that 
time. Mason and Dixon^s Line formed the division between 
slave states and free. Missouri lies out of the limits fixed, 
and the question was a threatening one until Henry Clay 
brought in his famous Missouri Compromise, which 
admitted Missouri as a slave state, and forbade slavery 
north of 36° 30' north latitude. To balance Missouri in 
the Senate, Maine was admitted at the same time as a free 
state. 

A protective tariff had been devised by John C. Calhoun, 
in 1816, and President Monroe strengthened and increased 
the protection accorded. In 1819 he purchased Florida 
from Spain ; he voiced that splendid declaration which will 
always be associated with his name — the Monroe Doctrine. 
This doctrine, briefly, is that the United States will not 
interfere in any European war, nor will it permit European 
interference or European control in America, North or 
South. 

No better proof could be given of the condition of par- 
ties than the election which ended Monroe^s tenure of 
office. The electoral college chose a vice-president, John 
C. Calhoun, but its vote for the presidency was so scattered 
between Jackson, Adams, Crawford and Clay that the 
choice was thrown into the House. Here, by an alliance of 
the friends of Clay and Adams, Jackson was defeated and 
John" Quincy Adams (1825-1829) became the sixth presi- 
dent. Clay was rewarded with the portfolio of state, and 
out of the alliance the ^^ Whig^' party was formed. Their 
principles were in part those of the old Federalists. They 
were for a high tariff with strong protection, and they early 
declared for a policy of internal improvements to be paid 
for by the nation at large. Jackson^s followers took the 



BEIEF HISTORY OF POLITICAL PABTIES. 533 

place of the old anti-Federalists ; tliey were strict construc- 
tionists, opposed to the tariff, and in their principles and 
speeches was to be found the nucleus of the states' rights 
doctrine. They called themselves ''^ Democrats. '^ The 
four years of Adams' presidency was passed in marshaling 
and organizing the two opposing forces. 

Andrew Jackson (1829-1837), the seventh president, 
carried everything before him. The electoral vote was 178 
to 83 ; Jackson removed some five hundred office-holders 
from their places, on Marcy's famous theory that ^^to the 
victors belong the spoils.'' 

The tariff was exceedingly unpopular at the South. Sev- 
eral states had protested, and in 1830 Senator Hayne laid 
down the doctrine of nullification — that any state could 
declare null and void any act of Congress. Webster 
answered in the debate which has since been famous. The 
original discussionwas not on the tariff regulations, but on 
the sale of public lands. The struggle was a hot one. 
Jackson put himself on record with his celebrated toast, 
'^ Our Federal Union, it must be preserved." Calhoun took 
the opposite view, and in 1831 the President's cabinet was 
broken up by the issue. A new tariff bill was passed, and 
in 1832 South Carolina passed the nullification ordinance. 
Jackson at once sent a naval force to Charleston, and Con- 
gress passed a bill enforcing the tariff ; but Henry Clay's 
compromise was accepted on both sides. 

The United States Bank was the next bone of contention. 
It had been chartered in 1816 for twenty years. After a 
struggle with Congress, and with his Secretary of the 
Treasury, Jackson dismissed Duane and appointed Taney 
Secretary of the Treasury. The Senate at once passed a 
vote of censure on the president, but the House sustained 
Jackson at every point, and refused a new charter. During 
his administration was the first weak beginning of the 
Abolition party. The Anti-Slavery Society was formed in 
1833. It was the target for abuse and violence, which 



534 BBIEF HISTOBY OF POLITICAL PARTIES. 

culminated in the assassination of Lovejoy. Congress 
would listen to no petitions upon slavery^ and Jackson 
asked that the sending of abolition documents through the 
mails should be prohibited. This the Senate refused. 

The Democratic candidate^ Maktii^ Vak Burek (1837- 
1841), the eighth president, was elected over W. H. Harrison. 
He followed out Jackson^s policy to the letter, one part of 
which, the celebrated '' specie circular," brought on the 
great panic of 1837. This was an order to United States 
agents to receive only gold and silver for public lands. In 
1840 the Whigs elected W. H. HARRisoi^ (1841), the ninth 
president. It was in this campaign that the abolitionists 
produced their first national platform, which favored the 
abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia and the 
Territories. In the same year the Democracy at Baltimore 
resolved that Congress had no power to interfere with or 
control the domestic institutions of the several states, which 
were the sole and proper judges of everything pertaining to 
their own affairs not prohibited by the Constitution, and 
that the efforts '' by Abolitionists or others " to interfere 
with questions of slavery were calculated " to lead to the 
most alarming and dangerous consequences," ^'^to diminish 
the happiness of the people and endanger the stability and 
permanence of the Union, and ought not to be countenanced 
by any friend of our political institutions." The convention 
also adopted a resolution to the effect that every attempt to 
abridge the rights or privileges of foreign-born citizens should 
be resisted. This was aimed at the Know-nothing tendency. 

Harrison was succeeded by the vice-president, JoHiq" 
Tyler (1841-1845), the tenth president. Tyler rapidly 
got into trouble with his cabinet, which, save Webster, 
deserted him on issues connected with his attempt to carry 
out Harrison's financial policy. The slavery question was 
pressing forward more and more urgently for solution all 
this time. A new tariff bill was brought in, and the proposi- 



BUIEF HISTORY OF POLITICAL PAMTIES. 535 

tion then made for a division of the surphis among the 
states. 

In the campaign of 1844 the Democratic platform declared 
the Great American Measures — the taking in of Texas and 
Oregon. As Texas Avould be a slave territory, the idea was 
antagonized in the North, but after a close and perplexed 
election James K. Polk (1845-1849), the eleventh presi- 
dent, Avas elected. 

The war with Mexico was the necessary consequence. 

The Wilmot Proviso attempted to block slavery in the 
new territories, and Oregon was organized as free soil. A 
low tariff bill was passed, and the Whigs got through a river 
and harbor bill which the president promptly vetoed. In 
the campaign of 1848, the Whigs recovered the government. 
The platform of the Democracy approved the Mexican War, 
congratulated the republic of France on achieving its liberty, 
and the world on the downfall of thrones and dominations 
everywhere. The same year the Whigs resolved merely that 
Zachary Taylor was the best man for president. At Buffalo, 
in the same year, the Abolitionists determined to maintain 
the rights of free labor against the aggression of the slave 
power, and to secure a free soil to a free people. This con- 
vention also demanded cheap postage ; river and harbor 
improvements Avhen required for tlie general convenience ; 
indorsed the idea of the homestead law ; and inscribed on 
its banner " free soil, free speech, free labor and free men.^' 

Military success and the excellent organization of the 
AVhigs made Zachary Taylor (1849-1850) twelfth presi- 
dent. He was succeeded by the vice-president, Millard 
Fillmore (1850-1853), thirteenth president. 

With 1850 was introduced the Clay compromise, which 
admitted California as a free state, but on the other hand 
altered the Fugitive Slave Laws, which inflamed tlie North 
to the point of war. The old parties broke up ; there were 
Democrats and Free Soil Democrats, and Whigs. AVinfield 
Scott, the Whig candidate, carried only four states in the 



536 BBIEF HISTORY OF POLITICAL PARTIES. 

Union, and Frai^klik Pierce (1853-1857), the fourteenth 
president, was elected. 

The Kansas-ISTebraska bill repealed the Missouri compro- 
mise and made all new territory open to slavery. The Whig 
party split in two on this issue, one of the sections becom- 
ing the Republican party of the day, the other going over 
finally to the Democrats, a fact which will account for much 
of the confusion on purely financial and tariff issues to be 
found in both those parties to-day. 

In 1856 the Republicans nominated their first candidate. 
Gen. John C. Fremont, '^^ the Pathfinder." Their platform 
was opposed to the repeal of the Missouri compromise; 
opposed the extension of slavery into the territories ; de- 
clared that Congress should prohibit in the territories ^^the 
twin relics of barbarism, polygamy and slavery," and op- 
posed all prescriptive legislation. The Whigs met at Balti- 
more. Their platform is devoted exclusively to a denuncia- 
tion of "^ geographical parties," and a recommendation of 
Millard Fillmore for president. The Democrats added little to 
former platforms, save that they declared against the Know- 
nothings on their war on foreigners, and agreed with them 
in their declaration against intervention with slavery. They 
nominated and elected James Buchakak (1857-1861), 
fifteenth president. 

The Dred Scott case now came on. Chief Justice Taney 
declared that a negro was a chattel, that the compromise of 
1820 was unconstitutional, and that a slave-owner might 
settle with his property where he pleased, in any territory. 
Following this came John Brown's raid into Virginia — his 
attempt to excite a slave insurrection, and his death upon 
the gallows. 

The campaign of 1860 was the most confused in the 
whole history of American politics. There was talk of 
secession in the air. There was war preparation in the South. 
The North was divided. The *^ Constitutional Union" 
party met at Baltimore. All it demanded was the ^^ Con- 



BBIEF HISTORY OF POLITICAL PARTIES. 537 

stitution of the country^ the union of the states, and the 
enforcement of the laws." The Eepublicans met at Chi- 
cago. It was asserted that the normal condition of all the 
territory of the United States is that of freedom ; that the 
reopening of the slave trade was a crime against humanity; 
that duties should be adjusted so as to encourage the de- 
velopment of the industrial interests of the whole country; 
that Congress should pass a complete and satisfactory home- 
stead law ; that the riglits of citizenship enjoyed by foreign- 
ers should not be abridged or impaired ; that the rights of 
all citizens, native or naturalized, should be protected abroad 
and at home. The Douglas Democratic platform, adopted 
at Charleston, favored the acquisition of Cuba ; declared 
that State legislatures which interfered with the enforce- 
ment of the fugitive slave law were revolutionary and sub- 
versive of the Constitution ; and reaffirmed the Cincinnati 
platform of 1856 on tariff. The Breckinridge platform, 
adopted at Charleston and Baltimore, reaffirmed the Demo- 
cratic platform adopted at Cincinnati, with certain " ex- 
planatory resolutions,^' which in substance were that slave- 
owners had a right ^'^ to settle with their property '^ in the 
territories without being interfered with by territorial or 
congressional legislation. 

On these issues four candidates were put in the field. The 
Republicans nominated Abraham Lincoln ; the Democrats, 
J. C. Breckinridge ; the Constitutional Union party, John 
Bell; the Independent Democrats, Stephen A. Douglas. 
Abraham Lin^colx (1861-18G5) was chosen sixteenth 
president. 

On December 20, 18G0, South Carolina passed a secession 
resolution. Following, six other slave states immediately 
seceded. A peace congress met and proved futile. The 
Crittenden compromise was scoffed out of court. The Con- 
federate States of America was formed, with Jefferson Davis 
as president, and slavery and low tariffs as its corner stone. 



538 BRIEJE" HISTOBY OF POLITICAL PARTIES. 

The first ball was fired April 14^ 1861;, and tlie great issue 
of the century joined. 

For the time politics were relegated to the background. 
There Avere only Unionists and Secessionists. The financ- 
ing of the great struggle led to a high tariff^ the issue of 
treasury notes^ and finally the establishment of the national 
banking system. The internal revenue system was devel- 
oped^ an income tax was imposed, greenbacks were issued, 
and the resources of the country marshaled to meet the 
ex|)enses of a war that cost $1,000,000 a day. 

On Jan. 1, 1863, President Lincoln issued the Emanci- 
pation Proclamation, which freed the Southern slaves, and 
marks an epoch in the history of the world. Two years 
later Lee surrendered to Grant. There had in the mean- 
time been another Presidential election, in which Lincoln 
defeated George B. McClellan and John 0. Fremont. 
Shortly after Lee^s surrender Lincoln was assassinated by 
J. Wilkes Booth, an actor, and Andkew Johnsois" (1865- 
1869), the seventeenth j)resident,* took up the chief 
magistracy. 

The problem of the day was the Reconstruction of the old 
slave states, upon which the new president and his party at 
once quarreled. The point at issue was the proper safe- 
guarding of the newly-freed negro. Congress passed the 
Civil Rights Bill, the Freedman's Bureau Bill, and sub- 
mitted the XlVth Amendment to the Constitution. The 
president was finally impeached by Congress, but his trial 
before the Senate resulted in an acquittal by one vote. 

Ulysses S. Geant (1869-1877), the eighteenth president, 
was elected over Horatio Seymour, on a platform which 
denounced repudiation ; favored suffrage on equal terms to 
all men ; encouraged immigration and declared itself in 
sympathy with all oppressed people. The Democratic plat- 
form of 1868 acknowledged that the questions of slavery 
and secession had been forever settled, and favored 
amnesty for all political offenses. It pronounced on tariff 



BBIEF HISTORY OF POLITICAL PARTIES. 539 

in the following words : '' A tariff for revenue upon for- 
eign imports, and such equal taxation under the internal 
revenue laws as will afford incidental protection to domestic 
manufactures, and as will, without impairing the revenue, 
impose the least burden upon, and best promote and 
encourage the great industrial interests of, the country/^ 

The X Vth Amendment, guaranteeing negro suffrage, was 
passed by Congress in 1869. A Liberal Kepublican ticket, 
with Horace Greeley at its head, was supported by the united 
opposition against Grant in 1872, but was defeated easily. 

The South was pacified, and the Treaty of Washington 
made, which involved the payment of the Alabama claims 
by the English government. 

In 1876 occurred the famous Hayes and Tilden contro- 
versy. Tilden was the Democratic nominee, and he had 
an undoubted popular majority — 4,284,265, against 4,033,- 
295 for Hayes. Rival electors claimed to have been elected 
in Louisiana and Florida. Intimidation, fraud and illegal 
voting were charged, and Congress finally appointed the 
Electoral Commission to settle the dispute, as there was 
nothing in the Constitution to cover the circumstances. On 
a party vote the commission awarded the disputed electoral 
votes to the Eepublican candidate, thus making Ruthek- 
FORD B. Hayes (1877-1881) nineteenth president of the 
United States. Specie payment was resumed during this 
administration, and the silver coinage act passed. 

From this time on to, the present the tariff issue has been 
the chief matter of debate in each campaign. In 1880 the 
Republicans elected James A. Garfield (1881) twentieth 
president. He was assassinated, and Chester A. Arthur 
(1881-1885) became twenty-first president. The most im- 
portant measure of this administration was the passage of 
the Pendleton civil service reform bill. 

Groyer Cleyelan"d (1885-1889), the twenty-second 
president, was the first Democrat chosen since the war. 
Out of his famous tariff reform message the Democratic 



540 BRIEF HISTORY OF POLITICAL PARTIES. 

platform of 1888 was stated at St. Louis, and the country 
was invited to choose squarely between protection, as rep- 
resented by Benjamin Harrison, the Eepublican candidate, 
and a tariff revision, as represented by Cleveland. 

The result was, after one of the most remarkable strug- 
gles in American politics, already known by its ^ell-earned 
name of the Campaign of Intellect, that Bekjamik Har- 
RisoK (1889- . . . ) was elected twenty-third president 
of the United States. 

The minor American parties which have appeared and 
disappeared during our century and over of national life 
are the following : Anti-Renters, a New York party, which 
flourished about 1841. They resisted the collection of 
back rents on the Van Rensselaer manor, near Albany. 
They had strength enough to defeat Wright, the regular 
Democratic candidate for governor of New York. Barn- 
burners, New York, 1846, seceders from the Democratic 
party. They were opposed to slavery extension. Buck- 
tails, New York, about 1815 ; they supported Madison. 
Conservatives, New York and some other states, 1837 ; 
paper money Democrats. Doughfaces, 1820, northern 
members of Congress who voted in favor of the Missouri 
compromise. Hunkers, New York, a faction of the Dem- 
ocrats favoring the South, Barn-burners being the other 
factor. Know-Nothings, New York, 1854, opposed to 
naturalization of foreigners unless they had been twenty- 
one years in the country. Loco-Focos, New York, 1835, a 
branch of the Democratic party. Liberal Republicans, 1872; 
Republicans who joined with the Democrats in support of 
Greeley for President. Temperance, or Prohibition, from 
1830 down, in many states; in favor of preventing or 
restricting the sale of liquor. The total Prohibition vote at 
the presidential election in 1888 was 249,937. Woman's 
Rights, from 1860 down ; those who favored granting to 
women the right of suffrage. 



STEVENSON AND THE WOBKINGMEN. 541 



SPECIAL. 



[The following was received too late to put in the body of this book, but 
as it shows Mr. Stevenson's interest in the workingmen and their kindly feel- 
ingjtoward him we insert it here.] 



STEVENSON AND THE WORKINGMEN. 

On the evening of July 11, 1892, the miners employed by 
Adlai E. Stevenson, met in mass meeting at Bloomington, 
to tender their congratulations to Mr. Stevenson on his nomi- 
nation. 

In the audience was a company of miners employed by 
the McLean County Coal Company, of that city, in which 
Mr. Stevenson has for twenty-five years been a stockholder, 
and is now the president. The miners marched in 'double 
file to Mr. Stevenson^s house, j)receded by a drum corps and 
a color bearer with the national flag. Mr. Stevenson met 
the assemblage of miners and a vast number of other citi- 
zens, who had gathered, and gave the miners a hearty 
greeting. Thomas Radford, who for many years has been 
the pit-boss of the^McLean County Coal Company, stepped 
forward and addressed Mr. Stevenson as follows : 

^^ We have called upon you this evening to extend oui 
most hearty congratulations for the honor recently bestowed 
upon you. To be nominated for the office of vice-president 
the second highest position in the gift of the people, is aif 
honor of which any one may well feel proud, and as citizens 
of the town in which you live, we are proud of the great 
distinction, and especially are proud of the fact that this 
honor has been bestowed on one with whom we have been 
so closely allied in a business way for so many years. It i 
with much gratification that we can look back over th 



542 STEVENSON AND THE WORKINGMEN. 

past years that we have been in the employ of the McLean 
County Coal Company^ for in all these years no pay-day has 
ever passed that we have not been paid our wages in full. 

^^Few disagreements have ever arisen, and these have 
been quickly and amicably settled, and we cannot relate any 
instance* where the company has treated us unfairly ; and 
many a ha|)py home has been erected in Stevensonville that 
would never have been there except for the kindness and 
consideration shown many of us both by yourself and your 
brothers. These things we have not forgotten ; and we are 
here this evening to extend, in the warmest terms, our hearty 
congratulations; feeling assured that in you we have a 
friend, one that will stand for right, and one that has the 
laboring interest at heart. I have been asked by my fellow- 
laborers to make this acknowledgment to you, and we have 
come this evening for that purpose, not as any political 
organization, for we represent both of the great political 
parties, but as your friends and co-laborers to extend our 
hands and our best wishes for you success always." 
In response, Mr. Stevenson spoke as follows : 
'^ It has been my good fortune on more than one occasion 
to witness manifestations of the kindly feelings entertained 
toward me by my neighbors and fellow townsmen, but I 
can say to you in perfect candor that your presence to-night 
and your words of kindness have touched me more deeply 
than I have ever been touched before. It is, indeed, grat- 
[fymg to know that the most cordial relations exist between 
the officers of our company and all of those who are 
employed in its service. As has been truly said by your 
u^hairman, few disagreements have ever occurred between 
yourselves and the company, and these have all been amica- 
bly settled. During the time I have been president of the 
company no disagreement or misunderstanding of any kind 
has arisen. I was more than gratified at the remark of Mr. 
Radford that I had not only treated you with justice, but 
Jways with kindness. I have certainly aimed to do so. 



STJiJVENSON AND THE WORKINGMEN. 543 

'' Mr. Radford has referred to the fact that many of you 
have homes of your owu iu the viUage of Stevensouville, 
paid for out of your earnings at the mine. It has been a 
source of great pleasure to my brothers and myself that our 
efforts to enable each of you to procure a comfortable home 
have met with such gratifying success. The most kindly 
and cordial relations should ever exist between the employer 
and employe. All disagreements should be settled by con- 
ference or arbitration. It has been my firm conviction for 
years that organization, looking solely for the bettering of 
their condition and the protection of their rights, is a neces- 
sity to the wage-earners. 

" I will detain you, gentlemen, with but an additional sug- 
gestion. It is this : By '^projoriate legislation when 
needed, but especially by the management of all the indus- 
trial enterprises of the country, the hoars of toil should be 
lessened. This would give to the wage-earners more time 
for the enjoyment of home and the society of his family. 
Again, gentlemen, I thank you for this visit, and take 
pleasure now in tendering you the hospitality of my home." 



APPENDIX. 



...t 



.It 



President Cleveland's Tariff Message to Congress, Dec. 
7, 1887, bears so directly upon the issues of the present 
campaign, that we give it here. 

ic« Peesidei^tt Cleyela]S"d's Message to Ookgkess. 

[From the ^'Congressional Record" December 7, 1881. '\ 



To the Congress of the United States : 

You are confronted at the threshold of your legislative duties with a con- 
dition of the national finances which imperatively demands immediate and 
careful consideration. 

The amount of money annually exacted, through the operation of present 
laws, from the industries and necessities of the people largely exceeds the sum 
necessary to meet the expenses of the government. 

"When we consider that the theory of our institutions guarantees to every 
citizen the full enjoyment of all the fruits of his industry and enterprise, with 
only such deduction as may be his share towards the careful and economical 
maintenance of the government which protects him, it is plain that the exac- 
tion of more than this is indefensible extortion, and a culpable betrayal of 
II American fairness and justice. This wrong inflicted upon those who bear the 

t}- burden of national taxation, like other wrongs, multiplies a brood of evil con- 

sequences. The public treasury, which should only exist as a conduit convey- 
ing the people's tribute to its legitimate objects of expenditure, becomes a 
^^ hoarding-place for money needlessly withdrawn from trade and the people's 

Y(_ use, thus crippling our national energies, suspending our country's develop- 

L^-i. ment, preventing investment in productive enterprise, threatening financial 

disturbance, and inviting schemes of public plunder. 
CO The condition of our treasury is not altogether new ; and it has more than 

ha once of late been submitted to the people's representatives in the Congress, 

-y who alone can apply a remedy. And yet the situation still continues, with 

aggravated incidents, more than ever presaging financial convulsion and wide- 
spread disaster. 



.^f^" 



THE SILVER QUESTION. 545 

It ■will not do to neglect this situation because its dangers are not now 
palpably imminent and apparent. They exist none the less certainly, and 
await the unforeseen and unexpected occasion when suddenly they will be pre- 
cipitated upon us. 

On the 30th day of June, 1885, the excess of revenues over public expendi- 
tures after complying with the annual requirement of the sinking-fund act, was 
$17,859,735.84; during the year ended Juno 30, 1886, such excess amounted to 
$49,405,545.20; and during the year ended Jane 30, 1887, it reached the sum 
of $55,567,849.54. 

The annual contributions to the oking fund during the three years above 
specified, amounting in the aggregate to $138,058,320.94, and deducted from 
the surplus as stated, Avero made by calling in for that purpose outstanding 
three per cent, bonds of the government. During the six months prior to 
Juno 30, 1887, the surplus revenue had grown so largo by repeated accumula- 
tions, and it was feared the withdrawal of this great sum of money needed by 
the people Avould so affect the business of the country that the sum of 
$79,804,100 of such surplus was applied to the payment of the principal and 
interest of the three per cent, bonds still outstanding, and which were then 
payable at the option of the government. The precarious condition of finan- 
cial affairs among the people still needing relief, immediately after the 30th 
day of June, 1887, the remainder of the three per cent, bonds then outstaud- 
ding, amoimting with principal and interest to the sum of $18,877,500, were 
called in and applied to the sinking-fund contribution for the current fiscal 
year. Notwithstanding these operations of the treasury department, represen- 
tations of distress in business circles not only continued but increased, and 
absolute peril seemed at hand. In these circumstances the contribution to 
the sinkiug-fimd for the cmTcnt fiscal year was at once completed by the 
expenditure of $27,684,283.55 in the purchase of government bonds not yet 
duo bearing 4 and 4A per cent, interest, the premiujn paid thereon averaging 
about 24 per cent, for the former and 8 per cent, for the latter. In addition to 
this, the interest accruing dm'ing the current year upon the outstanding 
bonded indebtedness of the government was to some extent anticipated, and 
banks selected as depositories of public money were permitted to somewhat 
increase their deposits. 

"While the expedients thus employed, to release to the people the money 
lying idle in the treasury, served to avert immediate danger, our surplus 
revenues have continued to accumulate, tho excess for the present year 
amounting on the 1st day af December to $.55,258,701.19, and estiuuited to 
reach the sum of $113,000,000 on the 30th of June next, at which date it is 
expected that this sum, added to prior accumulations, will swell the surplus 
in the treasury to $140,000,000. 

There seems to be no assurance that, with such a withdrawal from use of 
the people's circulating medium, our business community may not in tho near 
future be subjected to the same distress which was quite lately produced from 
the same cause. And while the functions of our national treasury should be 
few and simple, and while its best condition would be reached, I believe, by 
its entire disconnection with private business interests, yet when, by a per- 



546 THE SILVEM QUESTION. 

version of its purposes, it idly holds money uselessly subtracted from the 
channels of trade, there seems to be reason for the claim that some legitimate 
means should be devised by the government to restore in an emergency, with- 
out waste or extravagance, such money to its place among the people. 

If such an emergency arises there now exists no clear and undoubted exec- 
utive power of relief. Heretofore the redemption of three per cent, bonds, 
which were payable at the option of the government, has afforded a means 
for the disbm-sement of the excess of our revenues; but these bonds have all 
been retired, and there are no bonds outstanding the payment of which we 
have the right to insist upon. The contribution to the sinking-fund which 
furnishes the occasion for expenditure in the purchase of bonds has been 
akeady made for the current year, so that there is no outlet in that direction. 

In the present state of legislation the only pretense of any existing execu- 
tive power to restore, at this time, any part of our surplus revenues to the 
people by its expenditure, consists in the supposition that the secretary of the 
treasury may enter the market and purchase the bonds of the government not 
yet due, at a rate of premium to be agreed upon. The only provision of law 
from which such a power could be derived is found in an appropriation bill 
passed a number of years ago ; and it is subject to the suspicion that it was 
intended as temporary and limited in its application, instead of conferring a 
continuing discretion and authority. No condition ought to exist which 
would justify the grant of power to a single of&cial, upon his judgment of its 
necessity, to withhold from or release to the business of the people, in an un- 
usual manner, money held in the treasury, and thus affect, at his will, the finan- 
cial situation of the country; and if it is deemed wise to lodge in the secretary 
of the treasury the authority in the present junctm-e to purchase bonds, it 
should be plainly vested, and provided, as far as possible, with such checks 
and limitations as will define this ofB-cial's right and discretion, and at the same 
time relieve him from undue responsibility. 

In considering^ the question of purchasing bonds as a means of restoring to 
circulation the surplus money in the treasury, it should be borne in mind 
that premiums must of course be paid upon such purchase, that there may 
be a large part of these bonds held as investments which cannot be purchased 
at any price, and that combinations among holders who are willing to sell 
may unreasonably enhance the cost of such bonds to the government. 

It has been suggested that the present bonded debt might be refunded at a 
less rate of interest, and the difference between the old and the new secu- 
rity paid in cash, thus finding use for the surplus in the treasury. The suc- 
cess of this plan, it is apparent, must depend upon the volition of the holders 
of the present bonds ; and it is not entirely certain that the inducement which 
must be offered them would result in more financial benefit to the government 
than the purchase of bonds, while the latter proposition would reduce the 
principal of the debt by actual payment, instead of extending it. 

The proposition to deposit the money held by the government in banks 
throughout the country, for use by the people, is, it seems to me, exceedingly 
objectionable in principle, as establishing too close a relationship between the 
operations of the government treasury and the business of the country, and too 



THE SILVER qUE^jTION. 547 

oxtensivo a coramiugUug of tlioir raoney.. thus fojtcring an unnatui'al reliance 
in private bnsinesa upon pvib]i<' funds. If this Bchenio should bo adopted it 
shtiuld onh' he dono as a teijiporary expedieni to ujfjct an urgent lieecssity. 
Legislative and exocutivo effort should generally he in the opposite direction, 
and should have a toiidcnc}' to divorce, as inueh and as fast as can safely ho 
rlono, the treasury de])artnient friUn private cntorpriso. 

Of coiu'so, it is not expected that unnecessary and extravagant appropria- 
tions will he Uiade for tho purpose of avoiding the aceumulatiou of an excess 
of revenue. Such expenditure, besides the demoruIiziatJon. of all just concep- 
tions of public duty which it ontaiJs. stimulates a habit of reckless improvi- 
dence not in tho least consisf(mt \s ith the uiission of our people or the high 
and bcnelinent piu-poses of our 2;ovonmient. 

I have deemed it my duty to thus bring to tho knowledge of my country- 
men, as well as to the attention of their representatives charged with tho 
responsibility of legislative relief, the gravity of our fiuaneial situation, Tho 
failure of the CongTess heretofore to provide against the dangers which it was 
quite evident the ver>' natiire of the diiliculty must necessarily produce, 
caused a condition of iinancial distress and apprehonsion since your last 
adjournment which taxed to the utmost ail the authority and expediont' 
within executive control ; and these appear now to be exhausted. If disaster 
resultiS from tho contiriuo' I inaction of Congress, the responsibility must rest 
where it belongs. 

Though llie situati'ai thus far considered is fraught with danger which 
-hould bo fully realized, and though it presents features of wrong to the 
peoplu as '- 'oll as r>eril to tho country, it is ! ut a result growing out of a por- 
foctly palpable and apparent cause, constantly reproducing the same alnnn- 
ing circun. stances — a conj-'csted national treasury and adopleteci monetary 
conditio. 1 in tho busrijess of the country. It need htudly bo stated that while 
tho present situation demands a remedy, we can only be saved from a like 
predicament in the future by tho removal of its cause. 

Our scheme o^ taxation, by means of which this needless surphis is taken 
from tho people and put iuto the }- iblic treasury, consists of a tariff or 
duty levied upon importations Aom .ibroad, and internal taxes levied upon 
tho consumption of tobacco and spiritous and malt liquors. It must he con- 
ceded th't none of the things subjected to internal-revenue taxation are, 
stricth' speaking, necessaries, there a^i pears to be no just complaint of this 
taxation by tho consumers of these articles, and there seems to be nothing so 
well able to bear the burden ^vithout hardship to any portion of tho people. 

But imr present tariff* laws, tho vicious, inequitable and illogical sourco of 
unnecessary taxation, ought to be at once revised and amended. These laws, 
as theii- primary and plain effect, raise the price to cuu&umors of all articles 
imp'jrt''d and subject tii^^duty, by precisely tho same sum paid for such duties. 
Thn? the amount of tho duty measures the tax paid by those who purchase for 
tho use of these imported articles.- Many of these things, however, ure raised 
or nannfactured in our outi country, and the duties nrw levied u^-'Ou foreign 
goods and products are called pr'>tection to these home mauufaotures, because 
thoy render it possible for those of our people who are manufacturers to make 



548 THE SILVER QUESTION^ 

these taxed articles and sell them for a prioe efjual to tiiat demfiuded lor the 
imported goods that liave paid customs duty. So it happoBS that while com- 
paratively a fevv' use the imported articles, millions of our people, who never 
iTsed and never saw nnj of the foreign products, purchase and use things 
of the same kind made in this conntiy, and pav therefor nearly of quite the 
same ehhanf'cd pncc which the duty adds to the imported articles. Those 
^> ho buy imports pay the duty charged thereon into the public treasury, but 
tlic great mivjorlty of our citizens, who buy domestic articles of the same cla&s, 
pay a sv m at least approximaicly equal to this duty to the horo.e manufacturer. 
This reference to the operation of our tariff laws is not made byway of instruc- 
ti(>a, but in order that we may bo, cc-ustantly reminded of the manner in which 
thoy impose a burclen upon those Avho consume domestic products as well as 
t]if>se wlio consume iniportcl aiticles, and thus create a t&x upon ail our 
people. 

It is not proposed to entirely reliove the country of this taxation. Tt must 
be extendi Y':>ly continued as the som-co of the goYcmment's income; and in a 
:(adjiistm.ent of our tariff the incorests of Amerieaa labor engaged in manu- 
faoiiiro should be oaiefidiy considered, as well as the preservation of our 
la: tnufacturers. It may be called protection, or by any other name, but relief 
Ixon ilio hardships ai^d dangers of our present tariff laws should be devised 
wi»;n espcf^ial precaution againht imperiling the eiristence of or.r manufactur- 
ing interests. But this existence should not mean o. condition which; mthout 
regarr to the public welfare or a national exigency, mu.st always insure the 
realization of immense piollts instead cf moderately profitable returns. As 
the volume and diversity of our national activities increase, new recruits are 
ad>"lefT to those who desire a continuation of the advantages which they con- 
ceive the present system of tariff taxation dii-octly aliords them. So stub- 
bornly have all efforts to reform the present condition been resisted by those 
of oui" fellow citiaens thus engaged that they can hardly complain of the sus- 
picion; entertained to a certain extent, that there exists an organized combi- 
nati<<u all along the line to maintain their advantage. 

"We are in the midst of centennial celebrations, and with becoming pride 
V . cjoice in American skill and ingenuity, in American energy and enter- 
prise and m the wonderful natural advantages rnd resources developed by a 
centuiy's na.tional growth^ Yet, when an attempt is made to justify a scheme 
which permits a tax to be laid upon every consumer in the land for the ben- 
efit of our manufacturers, quite beyond a reasonable demand, for governmental 
regard, it suits the purposey of advocacy to call our maniifactures infant 
ind-istries, still needijig the highest and greatest def;ree of favor and fo.stering 
care that can be ■'.rTui;g from Federal legislation. 

It is also said that the increase in the price <.-f domestic manufactures, 
resulting from the present tariff, is necessary in order that higher wages maj' 
be paid to our workingmcn employed in mamifactories, than are paid for what 
is caDed the pauper labor of Europe. All will aclmowlcdge the foice of an 
argiijjAent which involves the welfare and liberal coinpensation of our. laboring 
people. Our labor is honorable in the eyes of ervrj American citizen ; an! 
as it lies at the foimdation of our development and progress, it is entitlod. with 



THE SILVMH QUESTION. , 54^ 

o;^i atfoctatioa or hjpocrisy, to tlio utmost regai-fl The standarfl f.f our 
1 " ..rors' life Rhoul<l uot b« in'-risurod by that of any other coimtiy less favored, 
aud thoy arc .mtitled to their 1 ill share of all our udviiutages. 

By the last census it is made to appear tliat of the 17,392,099 of our popular 
tior Ir.^-ag'-d in all kinds of industxies, 7^670,493 are employed in agriculture, 
4,074,238 in piofi f sioual and porsoual service (2.934,870 of -whom are. domestic 
sciTa'nvs and lah<-rers), while 1,810,256 are employed in trade and transp*>rta- 
tion, and 3,S37,112 are classed as employed in manufacturing find mining. 

For presi,'nt pm-poses, however, the last number given should bo consider- 
ably redueed Withcvt attempting to enumerate all, it will be conceded that 
there should bo deducted from those whicii it includes 375,143 carpenters and 
ioiners, 285,401 milliners, dressiimkcrs arid seamstresses, 172,720 blacksmiths, 
133, 756 tailors and tailoresses, 102,473 masons, '70,241 butcher:,, 31,309 1)aker3, 
22,083 plasterers, and 4,891 engaged in manufacturing agricultural implements, 
amounting in the aggregate to 1,214,023, leaving 2,623.089 persons employed 
in J^nch manufacturing industries as are claimed to be benefited by a high 

tarift'. 

To these the appeal is made to save their employment and maintain their 
wages by resisting a change. There should be no disposition to answer such 
suggestions It tiie allegation that they are in a minority among those who 
hibur, and, therefore, should forego an advantage, in the interest of low prici^s 
lor the majority ; their compensation, as it maybe ^jlTeeted by th»i operation 
of tariir laws, should at all tim^s be scrupulously kept inriew ; and yet, with 
slig)xt redection, they will not overlook the f.tct that thoy are consumers Avith 
the rest; that they, too, hare their own wants and those of their families to 
.supply from their earnings, and that the price of th<j necessaries of life, as 
well as the amount of their wages, will regulate thu measure of their v.elfai-o 
and comfort. 

But the Kciuctiou of taxation demanded should bo so meaflurod as not to 
necessitate or justify either the loss of employuj'.ut by the worknignian nor 
the lessening t i his wages : and the profits still remaining to the manufacturer, 
:nt.;ra nceessaiy readjustment, should furnish no excuso for the sacrifice of 
I ue interests of his employes either iu their opportunity to work or in the 
diminution of their compensation. Nor can the worker in manufactures 
fail to understand that while a high tariff is claimed to bo necessary to all(»w 
the payment of r^rinunerativo wages, it certainly results in a veiy large in- 
T N ase in the price of nearly all sorts of manufactures, which, inalmo.st count- 
icss forms, he u'^eds for the use of himself and his family. lie receives at, the 
desk of his emploverhis wages, and perhaps before ho reuehes Jiis homo is 
obliged, in a purchase for family use of an firticle which embmces liis own 
labor, to return in the payment cf the increase in pnco waich the tariff per- 
il; its the hard-eamed compcrjsation of many days of toil. 

The farmer and the agriculturist who manufacture nothing, butwliopay 
the increased price which the tariff imposes^ upon every agricultural imple- 
mont, upon all ho wears and all lu^ 'ises and ow;is, ••xeept the incrf aso of his 
f.oelvs a?id herds and such things as l.is Itu.sbandiy produces from the .ioil, is 
invited to aid in maintaining the present situation; and lio is told that a 



550 THB SILVEU QUliJSTION. 

liigli duty on kuported wool ifi Tiecessaiy for the bouefit of those -¥110 have 
shcci> to shear, in ordei* that the price of tneir wool may bo iucrcasod. • They, 
of cor-rse, are not reminded that tl'.o farmer who has no sheep is by this 
scheme obliged, ic his piuchaso <>f clothing and woolen gv'ods; to pay a 
tribute to his fellow-farmer as Tv'oU as to the manufacturer and merchant; nor 
is any mention made of tho fact that the shcep-ownors theoiseJvfis and their 
hor.seholds must wear clothing and use other articles manufactured from tho 
wool they soil at tariff prices, and thus, as consumers, must return theii' share 
of this increased price to tho tr«,desm.an. 

I think it may bo fairly iissumed that a large proportion of the sheep owned 
by the farmers throughout tho country are found in small flocks numbeririir 
from twenty-fire to fifty. The duty on tho grade of impoilcd wool which 
these sheep yield is ten cents each pound, if of the value of thirty- cents or 
less, and twelve cents, if of the value of more than thirty cents. If tJie liberal 
estiraato of six pounds be allowed for each fleece, the duty thereon 
would be sixty or seventy-two cents, and this may be taken as the utmost 
enhancement of its price to the farmer by reason of this duty. Eighteen 
dollars would thus represent the increased price of tho wool from twenty-five 
sheep, and thirty-six dollar? that from the wool of fiffrr sheep ; and, at present 
values, this addition would amount to about one-third of its price. If, upon 
its sale, the farmer receives this, or a less tariff profit, tho wool leaves his 
hands charged with precisely that sum, which, in all its changes, will adhere 
to it, until it reaches the consumer. "When manufactured into cloth and other 
goods and material for use, its cost is not only increased to tho extent of the 
fanner's taiiff profit, but a further sum has been added for the benefit of tlie 
manufacturer under the operation of other tariff laws. In the meantime the 
day arrives when the farmer finds it necessary to p.irchase woolen goods and 
materials to clothe himself and family for the winter. "When he facoo the 
tradesman for that purpose he discovers that he is obliged, not only to return, 
m the "way of increased prices,, his tariff profit on the wool he sold, and which 
then, perhaps, lies before him in manufactured form, biit that ho must add 
? considerable sum thereto to meet a further increase in cost ty a tariff duty 
on the manufacture.* Thus, in the end, he is aroused to the fact that he has 
paid upon a moderate purchase, as a result of the tariff scheme, which, when 
he sold his wool, seemed so profitable, an increase in price more tha.n sufficient 
to sweep away all the tariff profit he received upon the wool he produced and 
sold. 

"When the number of farmers engaged in wool-raising is compared with all 
the farmers in the country, and tho small propoition they bear to our popula- 
tion is considered ; w hen it is made apparent that, in the case of large part of 
those who -"^wn sheep the benefit of the present tariff on wool is illusory ; and, 
above all, when it must bo conceded thai the increase in the cost of living 
caused by such a tarifi' becomes a burden upon those with moderate means 
and tho poor, tho employed and the unemployed, the sick and w.U, the young 
and old, and that it constitutes a tax which, with rolentlesK grasp, is fastened 
Upon the clothing of every man, woman and child in the In luL reasons ai'c 



THE F.IL VFR Q VFSTIOX. 
suggostcd why the r.n^nval or reduction of th^s duty should be included .i. -i 

revision of our tarift" lows, » *. ^„ 

In Bpei-ldn^r of th. iucrcascd cost tr> the consumer of our hoiDO manufactuios, 
r.<,sulting from a duty laid upon imported articles of the .amo d^'^^P*^^^' ^^^ 
fact is not overlnokod that competition among our domestic producer some- 
times l;n^ the effect of keeping the price of tuciv products below thci ln?host 
limit allowed bv such duty, But it is notorious th^t this competition iB too 
often strangled by combinations auitc prevalent at thi& Mmo, and froqucnt.r 
called trusts, which have for th'^ir object the r.-gulation of the suppl}' and pr.cc 
,,f commodities made and sold by me:nb<rs of the combmation. /ll^^P^o/^ 
can hardly hope for any consideration i^i the operation of these selhsh 

''^ iThowever, in the absence of such combination, a healthy and free com- 
petition reduc s the prico of any particular dutiable article of home produc- 
tion below the Umit which' it might otherwise reach u'ader our tariff laws, and 
if with such reduced price, its manufacture continues to thrive, it is entirely 
evident that on.- thing has been db^coverod which shovt!^ -- ..,.,.'n,i.r M-raa- 
nized in an qifort to reduce taxation. 

The necessity of combinatiou to raaintuiii the price of any comuu.di.y to die 
taiiff point fimiishcs proof that some one is wUling to accept lower prices for 
such commodity, and that such pnef.=. are remunerative; and lower prices 
produced bv competition prove the same thing. Thus where either of these 
conditions exists a case would seem to b. presented foi an easy reduction of 

^^TTiTconsidorations which have been pr:.sciit:-d touching our tanlf laws are 
int mded only to enforce an earnest recommcndadon that the surplus revenues 
of the govommexit l.^e prevented by the redactio.n of our custom.^ duties, and, 
at the Tamp 1 ane to emphasiz-^ a suggestion that i i aecompli..hing this purpose 
we may discharge a double duty U, our peopi. by grant^ug to them a meo^ure 
of relief from tariff taxation in quaiters where it is n o.t needed and from 
goureog where it can be most fairly and j ustly accorde . : 

Nor CHU l-he presentation made of such considerations ,.:^ Mith any dcgi-ee 
of Ikimess, regarded as evidence of unfriendliness towards our loanufactm-mg 
interests, or of any lack of appreciation of their value and importance 

These interests coustituto r. leadiu.^ and most substantial element ot our 
national greatness and furnish the proud proof of our countiy'B progress Birt 
if in the emergency that presses upon us our manufacturers are asked to sur- 
fender something for the public good and to avert disaster, their patnol.sm^ 
.xswellasagi-ateful recognition of advantages already afforded should k.^ . 
;Lni io willfng co-->neratron. No demand is made that they shall forego .^.i 
the benefits 01 governmental regard; but they cannot fail to be fdmon^.hod 
of their duty, as well as their enlightened self interest and safety, wb ^n tbey 
ai'o reminded of the fact that fmandal panic and collapse, to wlucv. the pr.^s- 
en^ condition tends, afford no greater shelter or protection to our i^anufacturos 
than tt> our other important cnti^rpriscs. Opportunity for aafe, careful and 
deliberate reform is now offered ; and none of ns should >« unmindful of atime 
when an ahusedandirritated people, heedless of thf.ewhohavorosiRtod timely 



'^0^ TILE SILVER QUESTION. 

aad reasonable rolief, muy insist upon a radical and swcopiii.!:; re(3Ufi<;atioi'. oj 
;br'ir wrongs. 

The diiBciilty attending a Arise and fair royiaioa of our tariiT laws is xicl 
andcrestiinated. It will require, oa the part of the Congress, great labor u.l^;l 
cai-e, and ospeeiallj a Lroad and national contemplation of the suhject, RrA a 
patriotic disregard of such local aad >-J.<!jfisJi claimb as oro amrciisonabio aiH 
reckless of tho welfare of the entire country. 

Under our present laws more than jtbur thousand articles are subject to 
duty. Many of tbeso do not in any way cotapote with our own manufactures, 
and many are hardly worth attention as siwjects of revenue. A oousidcrablr' 
reduction can bo made iu the aggregate, by adding thorn to the tree list. T';\ • 
taxation of luxuries presents no features of hard>bip; but the necessaries o^ 
liio used ai'l consumed by all the people, thf du ty upon which adds to the 
cost of living in every homo, should be gi'catl} f-heapened. 

The radical reduction of the duties imposed on rav.- material used in manu- 
. facturos, or its tree importation, is, of course,, an important factor in any effort 
to reduce the price of those necessaries; iz v/ould not only relieve them from 
the increased cost caused by the tariff on such miitorial, but the manufacture.! 
product being thus cheapened, that part of the tariff now laid upon sucli 
product, as a com-pcnsation to our manu.facturerH for tho present price of rav 
material, could bo accordingly modified. Such reduction, or free importii 
tioE, would serve, besides, to largely reduce the revenue. It is. not apparent 
hoTv sr,eh a change c;r^ have any injuriousft'etfect upon ourmanufact^irers. On 
be contrary, it would apponr to give tli(4i2! a better, chance in foreign markets 
' -ith the maimfacturers of otlie^' camitriot,, who cheapen their wares i.>y fre(> 
mati^rial. Thus our jieople^'miglit have the opportunity of extending their 
'- iles beyond the limits of homo consumption — saving them from the depres- 
oion, in teiTuption in business and loss caused by a glutted domestic market, 
and alfording tlieir employes more certain and steady labor, with its resulting 
qiiiet and contentment. 

The questi(jn thus imperatively presented for solution should bo ap- 
proached iu a spirit higher than partisanship and considered in tiie light of 
that regard for patriotic duty Avhich should characterize the action of those 
intrusted with the weal of a confiding people, fiut the obligation to declared 
party policy and pvlnciple is not wanting to urge prompt and effective action. 
Both of the gxeafc political parties Jiow represented in tho government have, 
byrepeated and authoritative uecli.ratifms, condemned the con'ditioTfJgf our law k 
wliich permit the collection from the people of unnecessary revenue, and have, 
in the most solemn m.anner, promised its correction; and m-ithcr as citizens 
,>i" partisans are our countrymen in a mood to condone thedeliberiite violation 
of the '^•■" pieagi;^,. 

Our ^TogresR towards a wise conclusion Avill not be improved by dwelling 
upon the'^beoiies of protection and free trade. This savors too much of 
bandying ep^^bets. It is a condi'mi which confronts us — not a theoiy. 
Jtelief from this condition may involve a slight reduction of the advantages 
which we award c-i; home productions, but the entire withdraw al of such 
advantages should not b. contemplated. The question of free trade is abao- 



mE iSiL VMil . ^ UESllON. 

iutcly iiTeiovant ; and the porfiPtent claim niado in (pertain qn. 
efforts to r.'iion- the people fjo:n \injx\st and LUiiJC>'osu..rvlaxarL.v, ■. 
of so-called ftvc-v.:-,H\ers, is mi^cMovou,s and far vr no- of' trr^^v ajy 
tion for the public g^ood. 

Tho -iimplo and plain duty \\ u.'.~n -vc owe the t'.-.^ - -- -- ■ ' -- 
to the necessary expenses oi an economical opoititiou of tho gorommcTi 
to ro.-=itoro to the business of the couutr}- the money which wo hold u. .■> 
treasniT through the perversion of govemmeatal powers. These thing ■ cm. 
and should be done with safety to all our industries, without danger tc tht. 
onportunitvfor reraunerativG labor which our workingmeu need, and with 
benefit to them and all our people, by cheapening their means of subsistence 
■ jd increasing the measure of their comforts. 

The constitution provides that tho pr<.sident "shall from time to time, 
^vp to the Congress information of the state of the Union.-' It has been the 
" a of the executive, in complianco ^vith this provision, to annually 
the Congress, at the opcniiig o r its session, the general condition ot 
' • '1 to detail, with some paotieularity, the operations of the dil - 

'"• ' " .- -^rtments. It ^ ould be especially agreeable to follv)W this 

pouroo iit the pre*, i.t.timv., ^ ^^^ ^^^ ^^^ attention to the valuable accomplisli- 
,,,..^,T. ,,f tlu ,.e depr.rt^-v vits u. ^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^..^^^ ^^,^^ ^-^^^ j a^ ^o much 

the paramonn.^^mpo. ^^^^^^_^ ^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^.^^^ to' which this com 
-.rs thus &r been devOS:^^:^ iu..- ,_ ^^^^^ ^^^^^^^ ^^^ addition of any 
and only urge upon your ii.. .^^^ consiaoration the "state of 

thoLiiiou" as sho^vn in the present cou.s](iv,.,^^if,^-:,.^^^^^^^^. ^j.,,,^^^ry ^nd our 
general fi.^-'-il '^Itiuttio.-' ruaii which every eicmett*^ pf our "- .,.,>..,...,■' .-.rr.c:-,,rxr- 

ity depend ^^*>-h 

^The reporr.s ;' ^iie iu auh of departments, which will be str ,„ 

full and explicit Infomation touching tho transaction of 
intrusted to them, and such recomnuudations relating to legi; 
pnblH iotf.vests as they deem advisable I ask for these report 
mi-rida! ; s the deliberate examin8.tion and action of tha legishit 
ttie government. 

There are other ?abjects not embraced in tho departm 
demanding legislative consideration and which I should be ghu. 
.-•omo of them, however, have been earnestly presented in previous m 
and aa to them I bet? leave to repeat prior recommendations. 

A.^ the law makes no provision for any report from the department oi 
<m^ a brief history of tho transactions of that impc^rtant departm^^nt. 
logother with -ther matters which it may hereafter be deemed ess-utial to 
commend to the atlenti-n .>f ti.,- r.n.^ess, may furnish tho occfsion tor a 

future communication. 

Grover Clkvf-lakt,. 



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